tech question - ccbill + our own user auth system

[w3b]

Hi folks,

First post here so Ill say hello to one and all first :-)

Ive had a look around the forums and see there are a few members who are actually involved with ccbill and some that run sites of a similar setup.

Now on to my question ...

We're developers with experience in building member sites for other industries but not adult sites. Normally we manage all the user authentication system so that users can sign up , log in etc and then take part in all the interactive elements of a site such as forums, blog comments, choosing favourite items etc. Once a user logs in via our auth system we can then obviously track the session and users id etc. Knowing when the user is logged in and thus who they are we can control everything we need to with a little coding.

So, the problem

Weve signed up with ccbill to manage the subscriptions and affiliate system and can see that most sites work on the basis of a tour and then put all the members content in a subdomain or members folder etc and then use htpassword to control access. The problem is that apart from using a users IP address there is no way of knowing who the user is once they have passed the htpassword popup.

How do those of you who use ccbill to protect your members only content also track who those users are once logged in.

If you have a forum setup for members do you then require the user to sign in again to your forum system after they have logged into your members area ?

Hopefully you understand what Im talking about here. Im sure many of you allow members to add comments to sets or chat in a members forum.

One option I guess is that we allow users to sign up as a free member and allow comments to the blog etc and access a few downloads but then require they upgrade their account by paying via ccbill and use the post back functions there to upgrade their account giving them access to everything else. In this case though we would need some sort of api to access data at ccbill to check each time they login if they still have an active account with us at ccbill.

Another thing I have noticed when reading other posts is talk of password sharing and the use of "strongbox" . Could someone give us some info on the type of hacks and cheats used to scam access to members content. In other sites (non adult) we track every user download and so know if any one user is trying to download the same file too many times in any set amount of time which would lead you to believe that its not one user but many users all using the same id.

Would very much appreciate some advice on what the tried and tested methods are and their advantages or disadvantages from those of you with more experience in this industry then us.

In a nutshell the question is how to best implement a paysite system using ccbill but with as much user interaction and members features rather then just a static site with a standard tour out front and all member content locked behind htpassword logins.

Look forward to hearing your views and getting to know you all