I have a mailing list page in one of my asp.net web application... I found an online web based cron to execute the url of MailingList.aspx once a day in my application...
Is it secure to use an online free web based cron?
What should i watch out for when using them?
EDIT:
Does the online service claim the security?
Do they have proper contacting machenism?
Are others satisfied with their service?
Do others have any complaints?
Did you see their FAQs?
What they have to say about it all?
Answer can be best taken from their site actually.
It is not a defensive secuirty practice to move core parts of your application to 3rd parties. You might not get hacked, but there is a good chance something could go wrong. Unfortunately with windows hosting you don't have many alternatives.
Google AppEnigne is free and it has a cron: http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/config/cron.html This could be used as a 3rd party cron, but Google is probably more trust worthy.
Ask yourself, is this something that I want to be executed by anyone other than the cron script. If the answer is "don't care" or "yes" then use a 3rd party.