1&1 Linux hosting
The reason for the reference to 1&1 was that I am concerned that perhaps there is a problem with 1&1 allowing access to folders outside the web root.
However, my links to Connections and to WA scripts are to folders outside the web root (even though it seems as though links to images and CSS pages need to be inside the web root). So, since folders in the webroot are only one level deep, links to folders outside the webroot are as follows: '../../downloads', '../../Connections', '../../WA_eCart' etc.
As these folders seem to be accessed OK (e.g. data is being pulled successfully from the database), it looks as though there shouldn't be a problem with access to folders outside the web root with 1&1 hosting.