Contact form with CGI/PHP not available?

[torndownunit]

A client I am doing a job for has some pretty lackluster hosting (through Intuit). They don't allow CGI or PHP, but my client wants a contact form on the site.

Can anyone give me any options? I notice there are some free form processing services doing a google search? Are (a) these a decent option, and (b) if so can anyone recommend a good one?

Thanks

 

[Maxington]

What does the hosting allow them to do? This could help determine alternatives.

 

[torndownunit]

This is taken from their help page:

You can post a variety of files to your website. For security reasons, we exclude only the following file types:

.asa, .asp, .asptemp, .bat, .bok, .cdx, .cer, .cgi, .cmd, .com, .dll, .exe, .ffhtml, .htr, .idc, .jsp, .php, .pl, .shtm, .shtml, .stm.

I like how they exclude 'only' those types lol.

 

[angelwatt]

Hmm, well the don't list .py (Python). They should really have a whitelist rather than a blacklist in order to help customers determine what technologies they support. I'd personally get a new host because they don't know what they're doing.

I've seen those 3rd-party contact form hosting places, but have no experience with them. You may just have to list an email address. Look up ways to obfuscate the email address in order to reduce the potential for a spambot to pick it up though.

 

[torndownunit]

Hmm, well the don't list .py (Python). They should really have a whitelist rather than a blacklist in order to help customers determine what technologies they support. I'd personally get a new host because they don't know what they're doing.

I've seen those 3rd-party contact form hosting places, but have no experience with them. You may just have to list an email address. Look up ways to obfuscate the email address in order to reduce the potential for a spambot to pick it up though.

Ya it is poor hosting. It was already setup though unfortunately, and I don't think I will be able to talk them into switching at this point.

Hopefully someone may be able to post a first hand review of some of those form hosting sites. If they really want a form, that may be their only option. I have told them they may just have to have a basic contact page already though.

Intuit appears to use homesites for their hosting. I definitely would not recommend this service. I have tried to send them a couple of questions, and no reply whatsoever. And the guy is set up with one of their 'premium' accounts. To be fair, the service is more set up for people who want to build their own site super cheaply and have no experience though. They have free software that pretty much anyone could figure out (template driven). But, the hosting has practically no features or customization if you want to upload your own site design to it. A total pain to work with.