By default, we do not allow:
- IRC proxies or bots (public or private)
- public HTTP (web) proxies
- public URL shorteners
- public BitTorrent trackers
What these types of sites have in common is that they will be abused within minutes of discovery. It just saves time to say "no" up front rather than wait and shut it down later after there's a problem.
There aren't any circumstances where an IRC proxy or bot is allowable, and you will find most common IRC ports firewalled on our network.
If you need to set up a CGI or PHP based private web proxy on your site for your personal use that is appropriately access-limited, that is typically no problem as long as your use of it is legitimate. (This does not include using our ssh server as a socks or HTTP proxy. Doing so is strictly prohibited by our Terms & Conditions of Service.)
URL shorteners are, unfortunately, a lot more fun to write than they are to maintain. If you want to set up a URL shortener for your own use, that's fine. If you let the general public submit URLs to it, expect us to shut it down the first time it gets exploited. (And it will get exploited.) Properly-run URL shorteners aren't successful because they have the shortest or cleverest URL, they're successful because they have a team of people working 24x7 both proactively and reactively to prevent and mitigate abuse. If you have such a team, and you want to run a public URL shortener on our service, please contact us for special arrangements. If you don't have such a team, you'll have to find another host that's less concerned about the Internet's welfare.