O.K.. I think it's time to get a control panel, but I am not the most technical person in the world.. My main biz is building websites and i have always hosted some of the sites.. i am now close to 50 sites though and doing it my way without a control panel is starting to get tedious, and I have no idea how to set up FTP access so my users are starting to complain..

Here is what i am currently doing so you have an idea where I am at.

First, when a customer wants to host, I register the domain name then point that domain to a 3rd party DNS host..

Second. I goto that 3rd party host and get the domain to point to my Linux Mandrake Box.

Third, I create a folder on that linux box under my WEB user ( i only have two users, Root and WEB. under home/www/web/

I then open the Vhosts.cfg and enter the domain info to point it to that folder.

Then I open sendmail.cfg and create a virtual user for that domain to forward the email to my customers "other" email address.

Then I put thier site in that folder..

Whhheww.. Alot of work hey? And i do that at least 3 times a week its getting tedious.

So, Anyways, i want to start a new box with some control panel that will do all the above (minus the 3rd party DNS service, I really like that part). But is really simple. I can do Perl with no problem.

What do you guys think is a good start for me? I downloaded EASYHOST and installed it and it seems pretty good, but it doesnt do the email thing or the FTP thing.

Thanks in advance ye all for your help!

Hi,

Welcome to WHT. Do a search for "control panel" it's a common subject here.

Best Regards

Welcome to WHT.
As you'll soon find out, nobody can really agree on what the best control panel is :D
If you don't want to spend a lot of money (ie. none) you might try Webmin (http://www.webmin.com/) .
It may not be the prettiest in the world, but it's functional and ther are a lot of third-party addons available.

lol ill just say this theres a ton out there it just depends on what purpose your gunna use it for etc.

Welcome to WHT!

Sounds like you need something, I hope you find what you are looking for! I don't know if CPanel is right for you, but I have used it for a while now and it's wonderful. Of course, there will be someone right behind me with a different opinon I'm sure. ;)

Sara

Originally posted by Gadget Girl
Of course, there will be someone right behind me with a different opinon I'm sure. ;)

Sara
There always is!! :D

wow thanks for the warm welcome!!

I forgot to say i use webmin as well, but only to reboot the server and restart apache from a different computer...

I really would be happy if there was something that just made it easier for me to enter a new domain and it would make the folder where i wanted it to, add some kind of email and ftp account to that domain and modify the vhosts file for me. I dont need to really give the customer a nice GUI (although that would be an added bonus) just as long as they got FTP, thats really important.


And Again, Thanks again for the warm welcome. I think I am going to make this site my homepage :)

someone mentioned third party plugins for webmin.. this may just do it, where do i get them from (I checked webmin.com and the plugins there really dont help much)

The main place is the site thats linked on webmin.com otherwise search on sourceforge.net, freshmeat, etc for them, ive seen a few floating around on there

k i will. it would sure be good to find somekindof webhosting plugin that does all that stuff.

Does webmin support resellers??

webmin isnt a control panel designed for hosting. its more of a general admin tool, so no.

Originally posted by achost_ca
webmin isnt a control panel designed for hosting. its more of a general admin tool, so no.

If you know what you are doing you can eaqsily customize it for hosting clients.

does anyone know where i can get that modified webmin for hosting, that would be the best route since i already am familiar with it.

Hmm, try something like SimpleCp. Its perfect for what you need and its FREE! :)

http://simplecp.com

wow you are good! I actaully have been doing that for the last hour, donwloading redhat and simplecp to try it out.. man this AVI guy there kicks ass, he responds to my questions in like 5 minutes flat, not bad for free support!

Glad to be of help :)

oh, are you AVI? jeeze...

lol :D (No but can I take the credit) LOL

Originally posted by zoom
O.K.. I think it's time to get a control panel, but I am not the most technical person in the world.. My main biz is building websites and i have always hosted some of the sites.. i am now close to 50 sites though and doing it my way without a control panel is starting to get tedious, and I have no idea how to set up FTP access so my users are starting to complain...........

I will recommend CPANEL if you are looking to stay within a tight budget. Those guys have done a lot of updates since January and the product is well worth it for what they charge. I have even seen some cpanel resellers offer liceses as low as $55.00.

If you are one of those people from the old days who developed a hatred for Cpanel you just can't give up, then you may want to look at Ensim or Plesk

k, i am getting ready to try out simplecp, cpanel looks expensive, i dont know where you saw the 55 dollar thing.

The $55 price was a special price that one of the cpanel resellers was selling a while back. I think SimpleCP is perfect for you.

well, i downloading everything and there is absolutely no readme or install guide for simplecp.. oh boy is this gonna be fun :)

Originally posted by zoom
k, i am getting ready to try out simplecp, cpanel looks expensive, i dont know where you saw the 55 dollar thing.

Cpanel may be more expensive, but it is worth it. There still places you can get 55 dollar lisences. I cant vouch for simplecp but let us know what you think when you try it. Thanks

Originally posted by zoom
well, i downloading everything and there is absolutely no readme or install guide for simplecp.. oh boy is this gonna be fun :)

Actually its easy. extract the files from the binaryfiles.tar.gz file, run the install script. then repeat for the cpfiles.tar.gz archive

Before you start though, if you have mysql, apache, bind installed, remove them. simplecp has them bundled with it.

remove apache? wholly crap. k so when i install redhat, i just install it minimallist? do you know what i need like ftp/mail etc?

if i recall correctly everything you need comes bundled with simplecp. sendmail, apache, ftp, bind...

so yeah, install minimal

wow... jeeze thats incredible!

http://www.simplecp.com/downloads.html

instructions there (forgot about it earlier)

hi :)

glad to hear your using it :)
Just a note - if you run up2date it will override named, so after you run up2date, you will have to re-copy the named binary - no biggie :)

There is no readme (i dont have that much time :) ) - but there are instructions on the download page as someone pointed out above.

PS even if you have apache and other stuff pre-installed, you dont have to remove it, the install file will override it

:)