I have a client who parted ways with an old web designer a little while back and now they've hired me. Their site is still hosted on the old designers shared hosting account. She claims that she cannot give me FTP access to their site since it is on the shared hosting account. My client has their own unique domain name so their not on anything like crappywebdesigner.com/myclient.

I know that any shared hosting account I've ever used has had the ability to create FTP accounts that can only access a certain site or directory. My question to you is is she BSing me? I should be able to get access to the site to edit it without threatening the security of other sites. Honestly I think she just wants them to do business with her again.

What are your thoughts on this?

(btw its a complex site in Coldfusion so moving it would be more costly, plus I don't have the files. once I get access I will suggest to the client that we move the site to avoid future problems).

It is possible but I would vote for BS.

You are correct that she could create additional ftp access if she wanted to (even if her account wouldn't allow this, her provider could do it for her). It sounds to me like she is holding the site hostage. She's lost the design gig and is probably nervous about losing the hosting too. If your client is still paying her for hosting the best solution would be for him to ask her for a backup of the site. And then move to a real hosting company.

On the shared server,you have one account,you can create a few ftp accounts, "I should be able to get access to the site to edit it without threatening the security of other sites".In general,you only have the rights to access some directories.But it is a risk of the account security.It may cause problem to the shared server also.