Error Connecting to Remote Database

I am having problems connecting to a remote database. The ftp connection is working ok, but when I try to connect to a remote database I get the error message:

Error using this database connection!
Server Response: SQLSTATE[HY007][1130] Host ‘67-20-92-95.unifiedlayer.com’ is not allowed to connect to this MYSQL Server

I spent some time with my providers tech support going through this and they were unable to resolve this except for the fact that the connect seemed to be timing out during the request.
This connection did previously work prior to I think version 1.8.
Can you suggest anything to help?

Cheers Mark