[annieb]

My .htaccess file is in my members' area. I have access to it through ftp, in that I could download it, etc, though it's encrypted. Frankly, I am not sure how the whole thing works, but I did talk to the support people at where my site is hosted about possibilities and here was their response:

Unfortunately we don't do any sort of integration like that, but I think
it's very doable for someone who's experienced in vbulletin customization.
They should be able to add something in to the <CC Processor's name> script that
adds/removes the user to vbulletin as needed. It's more than just an
.htaccess though -- the user has to be added to the vbulletin database,
account confirmed, and all that. It should be fairly trivial for someone
who works with it regularly though.

I would bet that the vBulletin people could recommend a company to do the
modification. The <CC Processor's name> scripts are pretty simple to figure out, the
only thing you'd watch to be sure of is that you have them clearly
describe the changes made to the <CC Processor's name> script so that if the
netbilling script ever needs to be updated (by <CC Processor's name>) that those
changes could be put back in.

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That was the response from my hosting company. Frankly, I am worried about altering those scripts very much which is why I thought that my second solution - that somehow a mirror image of the board complete except with posting disabled - could be written from the members' area to the free area every few hours. This would solve the problem completely without the critical members' scripts ever needing to be touched. If the member's account is current he/she can get into the members area and post. If their account is canceled or declined, they can't get in.

Also, I have a large and fully featured members' area, which includes art, movie clips, lots of things. I don't really see how it could be managed just through vbulletin...?

Further ideas?

Anne