Hi guys, just need some help here. I'm going to be getting a dedicated server to resell from, and I would like to be able to offer some form of control panel to end users. What do you guys recommend?

Also, can someone hint to me some kind of package that would be similiar to what Kikko Networks is offering? For a morew realistic price, of course! ;)

Thanks a bunch!

There are several options out there for control panel software. It depends on what you are looking for and what price you want to pay. Also, it depends on the OS that you choose to work with. You should probably do a search on "control panel" to find threads regarding the different control panels. That at least will give you and idea of what people have to say about each.

In the end, you'll hear good stuff and bad stuff about each. So it really comes down to what you feel most comfortable with and more importantly, what you think will sell. Good luck!

You always have the option of designing one yourself, like I did. You may want to consider this for 2 reasons: the "genericness" of your system (or lack thereof), and your budget. Let me present you with a few ideas if you take that route.

My control panel is a frames page with a nice sidebar and title graphic (the only graphic in the control panel). Written in PHP scripts, all changes get put in a queue (except MySQL db changes) and then processed by cron jobs on the backend to do the processing). Qmail wasn't hard at all to do, even the fallover accounts. HTTP subdomains are a little harder, but we've got a nice vhost-file system for that (which is soon to be a MySQL database as well).

While I can't go into too many specifics as to how to do it, I strongly advise installing a seperate copy of MySQL for your control panel (if you write one or use one that is MySQL-based). It's nothing but a security threat to keep it in the same database as your users' data.

Thanks for all the info. So, can someone recommend a commerical one? I'm not so technically-inclined, although I might be able to get someone else I know to program one for me.

Also, any recommendations on who to go to for a good, reliable dedicated server?

For control panel, I would say you can try ensim or h-sphere(price range about $300).

For dedicated server, I would definitely recommend tim at multipleimage. Great service, great support. Be sure to email him directly, as the site is not really up-to-date.

Peter

if you are choosing linux PLESK all the way

Erm... What if I want my subdomain end users to have a control panel...?

Sorry for being so new to all these... :o