After reading all these positive feedback on H-Sphere we decided
to give it a go. Now, however after trying it for a while
there is a lot of annoyances, they CAN be fixed but it will
cripple the flexibility alot. As a note also, we have our own
inhouse billing software so we do not wish to use the h-sphere built in one. As what we have is more tailored to our needs.

1, bandwidth/diskspace quota. The users can change this
as they please, as we do not use their billing this is a MAJOR
drawback for us. Fix, go in and create a skin that has these buttons disabled.

2, Users can delete their own domain, again the fix is to create a custom skin

3, Users can add another domain, (atleast the button is there, although we can limit to 1 domain max). Fix, again modify the user interface

4, There does not seem to be a way a admin can go in and grant
a specific customer 100MB more diskspace or bandwidth. The only way would be through the end user control panel, but remember. Those are disabled so the user cant use them

It seems the h-sphere philosophy is to have the end user
control everything and for us administrators to only sit back
and relax. And, honestly. I dont like it, I want control over my own
business. In my opinion the ONLY way h-sphere will be a good
solution is if you go with them 100% including billing and all.

How have other people out here done this, those of you
that do not run the h-sphere billing system yourself.

And if you are a RESELLER - which H-Sphere is designed to support - then GOOD LUCK implementing any of the above fixes. As a reseller I have found H-Sphere to be one huge work-around and most of my hacks are inadequate at best.

#1 Setup MAX values - that will limit the quotas

And yes - H-Sphere should be used with internal billing.

Point wise there can be overwhelming replies to the disadvantages of H-Sphere ... since The Man (just above me replied , it is redundant for me as a Customer to reply to the Techs Q's ;) )
but elsewise ... one should always consider what are his Major Priorities before using any software for his buziness :D

I still havent figured out how to set mailbox quotas properly.
The end user is allowed to change his own quota, to a maximum
which I set. However, I dont see a way to say that there is a maximum total of 50MB diskspace for mail. You can have as many accounts as you wish, but never more than 50MB.
How do you do this? Any suggestions?

I think the main advantages that I see of HSphere are one's that your complaining about. I like the internal billing, the fact that I don't have to admin every single time a user changes one little thing. HSphere is meant to administrate all those things. If you wanted to do it all your self, why not just not use a CP or a basic one like webmin?

Originally posted by whoppe
I still havent figured out how to set mailbox quotas properly.
The end user is allowed to change his own quota, to a maximum
which I set. However, I dont see a way to say that there is a maximum total of 50MB diskspace for mail. You can have as many accounts as you wish, but never more than 50MB.
How do you do this? Any suggestions?

i think you should be using Disk Summary usage and not Disk quota for that , if I remember correctly from psoft forums :o

Hmm, tried. That still dont seem to effect the mailbox.
It just meant regular disk quota couldnt be changed to more than say 200MB. It didnt affect mail quota.

HSphere arrived on the market to raves from many. I remember not so long ago it had risen in polls here above Ensim and Plesk and many were praising it to the highest heavens.....

It's a bit like praising a host based on one-month with your $5.95 account. The real test is the test of time. And, at the moment, HSphere has not passed that test. Will they recover? Will they ultimately be proven to provide a good product? I don't know. The other control panels have improved with each passing year.

This is the very reason, however, I did not jump on the pre-ordering bandwagon for hostgui and the reason I have not placed any accounts on any new panel. I tested HSphere, liked its vision, found it just had too many issues open. No development company can fully test their product as they can't subject it to the broad and varied usage, the numerous configurations, and all the software it will encounter in the marketplace.

I look forward to HSphere's maturing and development into a good panel. However, I would not consider using it for customers in its present state nor with the current level of support provided by Psoft. I have seen the trouble it has caused for many hosts whom I respect a great deal-hosts who know the product inside and out.

However, WHM/CPanel, Ensim, Plesk, and Alabanza have all been around for a long time, have all been put to the test, and while not perfect, in reality, are rather trouble free. Having used WHM/CPanel for years, the only problem I have encountered in the last two years was a mail problem with a recent release that was resolved in less than two hours. When I used Alabanza's panel, I never experienced any problem. I have several servers with Ensim (acquired from others), and, although it isn't my panel of choice, have found it trouble free. My only criticism of Ensim was the lack of a reseller system and subsequently the lack of an upgrade capability when 3.1 was initially released. (Of course, this doesn't apply to the Windows version which is another "too early for primetime" release. And, plesk, which I don't find at all appealing aesthetically I have found to be quite stable and trouble free.

Will HSphere be a good panel? Perhaps...Is it now? no....I continue to choose not to test new panels and software on my customers....give them time to work the problems out.

I've been looking through it, and I'm overall quite pleased with it.
It takes some getting used to, put it that way :)
However, we do need to go give it the test of time.

Tho, many people seem to think a control panel replaces
a good sysadmin. Which is BS. You HAVE to have good sysadmin
skills in addition to the CP.

But, granted that. I'm sure it can work as well as any other CP.
Also, noted. I do not know of ANY other CP that can offer
a central management of many server spread
over several platforms. If i'm wrong I'd like to be corrected
and check out the CP that can do this.

Indeed I also agree that Time will be the best judge . ;)

And it is also true that Robustness is much more important than just features . HSPHERE provides the best level of features . And it will excel it's current status once the Domain Wise control Panel feature is out in some later versions down the line along with several other request which have been building up .
But the way the PSOFT guys have been developing it and the speed they come up with any patches whenever required or Bugs found is worth its praise/.
The best thing I have found with them on the contrary to what you say Incognito is their level of support . That is truly a bonus .