Maybe enabling outgoing mysql connections?

[RaidRealms]

I have a website, for a Minecraft server
So far, this is the best free web host I have encountered. Better than most paid!
But there is one problem.
Me and the owners of this Minecraft server have been trying to get a recent/top voters page for a while now.
Everything is setup except the page to display it. When I try to go to the page, it gives an error.
I was told outgoing mysql connections are disabled.
So, is there any chance you guys could enable the outgoing mysql connections again?

Vote Page: http://raid-realms.tk/vote.php

 

[ace_case]

I have to agree with this. I agree that using x10 hosted databases from outside sources should be blocked, accessing outside databases from x10 should not be blocked. Many people, such as RaidRealms up there, need this if they are hosting a game server where it would be impossible to use a database that comes with the web hosting. While people may abuse it, such people can be dealt with. I am not sure how providing hosting works, but I'm sure it isn't impossible to be able to offer it per account, similar to requesting for more storage, which would also help eliminate abuse without shutting it completely down.

 

[essellar]

It would probably have to be global, not per-account. And it sort of does encourage abuse (remote dashboards/system monitors and other private utilities) that, while they my not have evil intent, sort of miss the entire point of the Free Hosting offering.¹ (And discovering who is doing what, exactly, with remote calls, then deciding whether or not they fall within the bounds of reasonable use, is not trivial.) There are already more than enough latency issues with the Free Hosting servers (just from the volume of accounts and web users); I can't see any way in which hundreds or thousands of milliseconds to a significant number of requests is going to be an advantage to the average user case. (Remember that time spent processing his calls is time your users spend in the response queue. Then think about people who want to remotely monitor their electricity usage or thermostat behaviour and so on. It all adds up in a hurry.)
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¹ In case anyone's missed it, it's about giving the little guy a megaphone to shout with, even if nobody's listening. Ultimately, some autistic kid's stories about her cat or the tale of somebody dealing with cancer (or said autistic kid) has a lot more cosmic significance that your way-cool app, no matter how way-cool it may be. You're getting a lot for free here; treat it with respect.

 

[Skizzerz]

It is in fact impossible to allow this per-account -- it is either globally allowed or globally blocked. Otherwise, @essellar pretty much sums it up nicely with regards to what sort of impact this would have:

One other note: Free Hosting is meant for you to put up a website. The vast majority of websites do not need to make outgoing connections on ports other than 80 (http). Those that do tend to more be because of abusive reasons (launching DoS attacks) than legitimate use cases last I checked, so they are generally left blocked.