Hi, what are the good control panels for windows servers today? I heard ensim is pretty good, and it works well with modernbill? thanks.

http://www.psoft.net/ - H-Sphere
http://helm.webhostautomation.com/ - Helm
http://www.etrinix.com/cm/ - Command Matrix

Edit: Already posted :(

Would ensim be considered one of the top ones? If someone could give me a quick summary of the pros and cons of each, I'd be most grateful. Thanks.

support for command matrix is non-existant, I would not recommend using them. I have not used the other listed but will shortly be trying out helm.

Etrinix: They think 6 days to reply to an urgent support request is pretty good. And then when they do reply they haven't even read the question and answer a totally different question.

Dont touch Etrinix unless you're really bored and want to liven up your day with angry clients calling you all the time.



Ensim: Doesnt support ColdFusion so resellers and users can't set up datasources or other coldfusion features. Waste of time for Coldfusion sites.


We're still looking for a useful control panel that supports coldfusion sites.

Deleted - duplicate post.

Originally posted by Al Nany
Would ensim be considered one of the top ones? If someone could give me a quick summary of the pros and cons of each, I'd be most grateful. Thanks.

Ensim is nice and easy to use for Admins/Resellers/users. Sadly though the Windows version is a pale reflection of the quality of the Linux version. It has some nice features but it also has some plain stupid features - e.g. you cant set a bandwidth limite per month per client (e.g. 2gb). What you can only do is set a maximum kb/sec transfer speed on that domain, so 1028kb/sec means there is no way they can go over xxgb per month. Totally crazy.

Its a good product, just dont go expecting the same kind of quality as you would get from the Linux version. Add to that support is damn expensive, few people use Ensim for Windows and there arent many places to get help when things go wrong.

Having said all that, we use it and have (so far) found it to be the best.

If you arent in a rush I'd wait for cPanel for windows to come out (if it ever does).

I installed Etrinix on my Windows machine, and found out that it integrates their own in house service which takes over other services in the system, which is not to my taste. As a sys admin I found out that my machine just turned into a bot which can be controlled only from web based interface. Lack of uninstall option will make you go nuts in uninstalling their demo version. b**ch.

Ensim looks nice, but they don't offer any downable demo version. Too bad. Their price tag looks scary for a beginner Windows based host, but then again, if you fully paid for your Windows license, and MS SQL, then Ensim's price tag won't bug you.

Helm offer downable version which doesn't take over your machine, but instead co-op with it. I like that. It's simple to install, and use, plus they also offer a well made tutorial for their admin interface. Almost forgot... they actually have an uninstall feature. Respect.

Peace.

Thanks for your opinion Homie.

Etrinix is a total failure for us. Etrinix think 6 day response on an urgent support call is good. Their software wont create databases and DSNs correctly, and you can't create user logins for MS SQL databases. The webmail is useless because it just doesnt work.

Basically Etrinix has been a complete disaster for us - cost us at least 8 clients so far and no sign of them being interested in helping us make it work. I'd tolerate lots of things if they showed some interest in fixing problems. But basically they seem to take the attitude, "you've paid your money, now p**s off and dont bother us with pesky problems like 'it doesnt work'"

I hear ya bro. Took me 15 minutes to figure out their control panel ain't professional.

I sent them an email about 2 months ago with a request to get an uninstaller, or at least instructions on how to remove their *beep* *beep* control panel. No response. No biggie bro, they won't be hearing from me anymore. Right-click -> Email Rules -> Block. Peace :)

Maybe that's why I didn't get their email.. haha, j/k ;)

It is true that Etrinix® was slow at providing support --- but that is not the case now. We have improved on that substantionally.(I must add here, that most of the problems faced by the users are that of Windows and not of the CP). We are working hard on the product and soon you will be able to see a Control Panel like never before. I would not describe the features here due to some limitations; but I assure you that you will find the new CP ahead of all.

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<edited setup signature in your profile>

errrr

So you blame windows??

How do helm do it then?

Thanks
JBuckle

We have used the control panel from Etrinix for 8 months and now we have several servers with that control panel and our customers really like it too.

The support from Etrinix was bad for a period but is now much better.

We use the control panel with Mailenable (not their own mailserver, will not recommend it) and we do not have any problems, and this mix covers our needs at the moment.

Well the Etrinix control panel has cost my hosting business at least 3 of my clients now - left because of the time delay in getting it up and going. And months after buying the server box, we still dont have a system that I can offer anyone. I dont dare invite any potential clients to come over because of the godawful standard of support I'm forced into providing.

It's still the worst CP I've ever used. We dont have a choice of email servers (as I understand it) and it's so awful we can only get any mail traffic by opening it to relaying - a great incentive for spammers to come and rape us - and it doesnt accept our passwords, so our only way to send emails is to use the webmail interface. (That is a pretty mediocre design too - for example there's no button for "inbox" - you have to select the folder from a drop down menu). For the last 3 days we have had no email traffic in or out because of a problem with the mail server.

The worst thing of all for us is that it was sold as being integrated with the coldfusion administrator. That was definitely part of the features list when we ordered it, but by the time it was delivered, coldfusion had been removed from the features list. No word, no hint from Etrinix that they no longer supported coldfusion. They just sneakily removed it. Coldfusion integration was the major reason we bought it because we're a coldfusion hosting company!!! 60% of our support was doing basic coldfusion chores like setting up datasources and coldfusion mappings etc. So we went to all the trouble to buy and install Etrinix, and they withdrew the major feature we were buying it for!!!

I think their customer relations stinks. They might have improved their support (I still think being proud of a 6 day response on support is a total joke) but they havent improved much else.

But it does look pretty though.


Having said all that, I think if Etrinix did what they promised originally, and added Coldfusion support, and fixed the world-worst email server, they'll have a really good CP. They just need to be responsive. Hell even if they got their level of responsiveness up to the standard of a phone company or a government department that would be a major step forward. They could work on getting it up to mediocre after that.

Your problem is more a Coldfusion issue and is a special one (not many that want to support Coldfusion). We do not support it and we use Mailenable as we didnt like their own mailserver.

We use it without any problems and we get many customers daily. They tell us that we have a very easy to use controlpanel and we agree with them.

Anyone here using HC? I find that HC control panel is better than the rest.

We use Hosting Controller,

We liked the control panel so much that we recently partnered with HC so we could provide discounts on the software to our clients.

iCu said:

Your problem is more a Coldfusion issue and is a special one (not many that want to support Coldfusion). We do not support it and we use Mailenable as we didnt like their own mailserver.


Thanks for your input iCu, but Etrinix's website clearly listed "ColdFusion support" in the features list, and that's one of the main reasons we bought the CP. We're a coldfusion specialist company. It's not difficult to interface Coldfusion with web browsers. It's own administrator operates from a browser. It's designed to be administered that way. I could debate with you about "not many people want to support ColdFusion" because there ARE a lot of coldfusion sites, and we have identified a market that's hundreds of times the size of our business.

Frankly I dont care whether you think there are many people wanting coldfusion or not, Etrinix said it supported ColdFusion and that's one of the main reasons we bought it. Now it doesnt. It's far easier to have it interface with ColdFusion and modify the settings than it is to create databases or do anything in .aspx. FAR easier. They just dont want to that's all. Or they can't be bothered. Either way the main reason we bought their product has gone and it could be easy for them to add it back in.

We are currently leaning more towards HELM. HostingController was at the top of our list until we found some rather frightening issues with the bug report/fix system they were using.

HELM has been great so far (during the free demo period). We haven't purchased yet; but will be in the very near future.

Once upon a time when the date/time was 10-20-2003 01:50 PM, e-j (Eric Jordon), from Etrinix posted

We are working hard on the product and soon you will be able to see a Control Panel like never before. I would not describe the features here due to some limitations; but I assure you that you will find the new CP ahead of all.
Now the date/time is 02-03-2004 12:44 PM, its about 4 months and 11 days and there is no sign of "you will be able to see a Control Panel like never before".
Their customers are screaming there of the Forum, but there is no body from the support to answer their questions.

Helm is ok, but I think there isn't much documentation.

GUI of any software makes the first good or bad impression on the user's mind. Helm is poor by its interface.

Yes, I agree that Helm has a bad GUI. ECM and HC is a lot better.

Once you get used to Helm its great.

They are improving it all the time :)

Is it not much more expensive than all the others?

It was more expensive last year. Pay more for a panel and then take time to get use to it doesnt sound attractive!

We have been using Hosting Controller since version 1.0b feel that it is one of the best around. The support willing to help customised the ontroller to your needs. Till now have not found any other controlpanel to be that supportive of their clients

I have used hsphere for quite some time, I WOULD NOT recommend it. It doesn't work so well with like 3rd party billing applications, a lot of clients have trouble, yeah- no fun. Im working on transitioning currently.