noooooo 
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I am kinda confused by this, does that mean uptime monitoring services are now prohibited on Free Hosting?
Like, if an uptime monitoring sends a request to our website, a PHP script can also be executed.
In the article you mentioned that the reason of the Cron Jobs removal is because server power is wasted on useless URLs, which if we use an uptime monitoring service, it could eliminate the need of automation on InfinityFree/iFastNet’s servers, but still allowing legitimate users to be able to use a similar feature.
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very bad news for real cron users…
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I’m not sure about iFastNet’s cron jobs, but the InfinityFree cron jobs (which are 100% custom by the way) already store the status code, and I had plans to build something that automatically disables cron jobs that don’t work. I told iFastNet about this and was willing to expedite this, but they were very clear that there were no conditions under which they were willing to accept cron jobs.
I’m aware. Patience please, I’ve been busy but I intend to get started with the proper teardown tomorrow.
Yes, all the client area buttons are still there, but the dispatcher that actually schedules the cron jobs to be executed has been disabled. It will be removed soon.
Good question! I’m not sure about this one.
Uptime checkers can still check if the server responds, but they will be happy if they just see the browser validation challenge. For a cron job to work, you’d need something to break past the Javascript challenge.
That also means that you cannot use an uptime checker to make a poor man’s web cron: the uptime checker wouldn’t actually trigger any code on your site.
So uptime checkers are safe enough to try for their intended purpose. But they won’t work as a cron job replacement.
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Hello 
@Admin
So what about hosting a program on your server and create a cron from an other service that runs the program?
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It is theoretically answered in my previous question, just replace Uptime monitors with a cron program.
But the main issue is:
CloudFlare.
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Like I said:
So for this, and all other “but can I do…” questions: no, you cannot do it. It’s either technically not possible, and if it is technically possible, it’s not allowed and will be blocked if we find you are doing this.
If we wanted people to have cron job like functionality, we would be changing the feature so it conforms to the rules, not removing it entirely.
To be clear: the problem is the load it generates on the server side, i.e. on the sites being triggered by the cron jobs. Triggering the URLs is the easy part. The InfinityFree version of it worked really efficiently, and because it’s entirely built on the InfinityFree side, requires zero effort to run or maintain for iFastNet.
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This:
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In my opinion, it should be allowed to send only 1 or 2 CRON JOB requests throughout the day, without stopping it completely. This is just my opinion, and I’m not that skilled.
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The Admin also wanted to build a system that would automatically terminate cron jobs that didn’t work, but unfortunately:
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Dear InfinityFree
I offer my endless thanks and gratitude for opening your servers to us, we are aware of your support problem for cron, but do you have a chance to make a stretch for independent sites that are in the forefront, do you prepare a form and evaluate the site owner and the purpose of the site according to the purpose of use of the site and grant cron permission would be a divine blessing for us developers.
While a good idea in theory, that is a bad idea in practice.
InfinityFree is free because (one reason anyway) is that there are no staff to pay. If people were allowed to submit requests to use the cron service, and every request had to be validated, that takes time, and therefore money (Which remember, you are not providing).
Also, is would be pretty easy for people to abuse the system by hosting quality content before the review, then changing it to abusive content after they are granted permission to the cron service.
Lastly, it does not solve the problem of the cron service keeping alive old websites that are no longer in use.
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Of course, you are right, but you help people who do not abuse this situation and software developers like me, where the dollar is very expensive in their country, you help at least 10 sites that really need this function by making 10 exceptions, just 10 sites.
But then whose job is it to choose the 10 sites? And if you are not chosen, then then you get mad, say “Hey, they got picked, why not me?”. Selectively choosing is just worse than a straight out “no”.
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Well, is the data base connetions problem of the free host fixed in the starter host package, which is 20 dollars per year, I want to buy it, but I don’t have enough money, I will take the risk and spend my personal savings.
What database connection problem? If you’re having problems with database connections, please create a new topic.
We’re not going to build features that benefit only 10 people.
I haven’t done the math, but I’m pretty sure it would probably be cheaper for us to just give those 10 people a starter account for free than it is to tailor our service for them.
Levels of wages and cost of living vary wildly across the world, and what’s a lot of money to some people is next to nothing for someone else. Because around here, $20 per year is peanuts. Many premium hosting plans costs that amount every month.
And just to be clear: no, I’m not going to give you a starter account for free. Even though we provide free hosting, InfinityFree is still a for-profit company, not a charity. It’s not our business to pay your hosting costs for you.
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I was seriously bummed out about this too. But since the cron’s are all php’s, they can be run manually by pulling them up in a browser. This might not be feasible for a Cron that someone runs every 5 minutes. But it works fine to repopulate my SQL DB that only needs to be updated weekly.
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