Hi -

I've been going back and forth looking at various cpanel/billing or complete solutions for shared Unix hosting (FreeBSD).

I am trying to find out and am not 100% sure what combos support the following for an end user (automatically without admin intervention):

(a) buying a domain during the signup process
(b) buying an SSL cert during the signup process
and
(c) buying an SSl cert from control panel (after account is setup)


Cpanel / Modernbill
Plesk / Modernbill
Hsphere

also, if there are other billing packages that do this with either Cpanel or Plesk, that would be great to know. Lastly, is Cpanel or Plesk ahead in terms of integrating access to the Modernbill userpanel seamlessely (I think Plesk supports this, not sure about Cpanel).

Any experience that someone can shed would be great, thank you.

Best,
d.

Cpanel works great with modernbill and we use it for domains and ssl certs as well and it works like a charm.

wcws - RIGHT ON! Although we don't sell domains using enom, we use ModernBill for all of our clients without a hitch.

Ken and Stephen,

Thanks for the fast replies. I've been wandering away from cPanel but I'll re-explore. How do you integrate Modernbill with cPanel? Is there a link inside the user's cPanel control panel that can send them over to Modernbill's CP? Do you have to re-authenticate when (if) doing so?

Thanks again -
Best,
d.

I do not believe that cPanel's basic themes can send you directly to ModernBill, however RV Skin definately does, however I haven't really optimized that function yet (I've been too busy :D).

Basic setup of cPanel in ModernBill for the automation is a fairly simple process. We suggest our customers visit http://manual.modernbill.com for assistance with that aspect of the script.

Like Stephen said, Rvskin is probably the way to go and the only way I know of to integrate mb login. While the user is in their RVskin panel, they will have an icon to click on and it will take them right into MB gui. It is very easy to setup in the rvskin admin area and only requires some modernbill database info to set it up. It is a very nice feature that saves your clients from having to make multiple logins.

Thanks Ken - I just was at the RVSkin site and checking it out again. I see in one demo the link to modernbill - simple enough. I just need to be able to mod modernbill to trim it down a bit - I feel like it's a bit overwhelming even on the user side.

You guys mentioned SSL support - is there an option via cPanel (either w/ or w/o RVSkin) to buy an SSL cert? I see there are installation tools for a cert bought "outside". If I remember correctly Modernbill has facilitites to buy an SSL cert on signup though, right?

Thanks!
d.

As far as ssl certs, modernbill offers ssl factory and you can purchase geotrust certs at a nice discount. You can find cheaper geotrust certs like at EV1 servers or a few other places but modernbill sslfactory will integrate the ssl signing process right into your clients mb panel. It then connects directly with geotrust for the process and the client will be able to view the ssl info right along with their packages and domain information, right from their mb gui.

Again, there are cheaper certs out there but this is a nice clean way to activate them if you are using MB.

I'm all about nice/clean! :) Thanks. Hey, since you've been so great can I please ask one final one? I notice that cPanel and Modernbill both have support ticket (help desk) tools. Can one of the two be shut off so that it's not confusing as to where tickets go? I'm sort of assuming that one is clearly better or maybe they're quite similar. I'd just like to remove one either thorough typical settings or mod one out so it's invisible...

Finally, thanks for all the kind help. Have a great night -
Best.
d.

Originally posted by dgoss
I'm all about nice/clean! :) Thanks. Hey, since you've been so great can I please ask one final one? I notice that cPanel and Modernbill both have support ticket (help desk) tools. Can one of the two be shut off so that it's not confusing as to where tickets go? I'm sort of assuming that one is clearly better or maybe they're quite similar. I'd just like to remove one either thorough typical settings or mod one out so it's invisible...

Finally, thanks for all the kind help. Have a great night -
Best.
d. I am not sure as far as the cpanel support desk because I never used it. As long as you let your clients know that they should submit their support requests via their MB gui, that should solve your problem. I actually integrated Cerberus helpdesk into modernbill and it utilizes email parsing as well as piping so it doesn't matter where my clients send the support ticket from, it goes right to my helpdesk (cerberus GUI)

I hope that helps..take care