Thanks for the detailed explanation. I think that was it. At first I thought perhaps it was some blackhat hosting, but it appears they are legit; however, they are now asking my client to pay $45 a month to to get cpanel for linux dedicated license. I don't know why she would go through all that when Hostgator is less than $4 a month.

Granted, a strange question here...

My client lost her cpanel login credentials, or never bothered to get them (she didn't even know she had a hosting account). Apparently she has a friend who is hosting her website for her, free of charge.

I need to get into the cpanel, but they are being extremely difficult. The client asked them and they didn't want to give it to her either. Still trying, but is there any reason why they would be so difficult? How does it benefit them? It can't be because they're afraid of losing her account because she isn't paying them anything. Totally confused by this. Any ideas?

Granted, a strange question here...

My client lost her cpanel login credentials, or never bothered to get them (she didn't even know she had a hosting account). Apparently she has a friend who is hosting her website for her, free of charge.

I need to get into the cpanel, but they are being extremely difficult. The client asked them and they didn't want to give it to her either. Still trying, but is there any reason why they would be so difficult? How does it benefit them? It can't be because they're afraid of losing her account because she isn't paying them anything. Totally confused by this. Any ideas?