Acceptable use policy
Last updated: May 9, 2026
host.tools is a diagnostic toolkit for webmasters and admins. Our tools issue real network probes — DNS queries, HTTP requests, TCP connects, port scans, SMTP banners — to whatever target you supply. You are responsible for the targets you choose.
You may use host.tools to
- Diagnose your own infrastructure and services.
- Audit domains, IPs and URLs you own or have written authorisation to test.
- Inspect publicly-published metadata (DNS, WHOIS, SSL certificates, security headers, robots.txt).
- Educate yourself or others about networking, DNS, TLS, email auth, and security.
You must NOT use host.tools to
- Conduct attacks (DoS / DDoS, brute force, credential stuffing, spamming, vulnerability exploitation).
- Probe systems you don't own or aren't authorised to test, beyond passive lookups of publicly-published metadata.
- Mass-scan address space at high velocity (use ZMap with proper authorisation, not us).
- Harvest contact information, build mailing lists, or facilitate unsolicited email.
- Bypass paywalls, geo-blocks, or anti-abuse controls of third parties.
- Surveil individuals, dox, or build behavioural profiles.
- Reverse-engineer or scrape host.tools itself at scale (use the API).
Volume & rate limits
Free tier is capped at 200 web lookups/hour and 100 API calls/hour per IP. Pro is 10,000/day. Sustained traffic over those limits triggers throttling and may trigger account suspension.
Reporting abuse
If you believe someone is using host.tools against you, email [email protected] with the timestamp and target. We log every request and cooperate with responsible-disclosure and law-enforcement requests where lawful.
Enforcement
Violations may result in: rate-limit reduction, temporary suspension, permanent ban, refund denial, and where appropriate, referral to law enforcement.