Okay this is probably the lamest most stupid question ever asked.

But I think someone had to ask it.

What is a Control Panel and how does it differ from Hosting Software?

Do all control panels "interact" with say Apache and Linux to create/control hosting accounts? Or just simply work with say H-Sphere to help account holders manage their accounts.

It seems to me that two are linked but looking at ASM, web://cp I'm not sure.

All control panels interact directly with the OS and software on it. However, there is other software that interacts with the Control Panel itself to basically add features.

Thanks!

I've been asked by my Sys Admin to tell him what I want to replace my H-Sphere 1.3 (?) with, as it's old and somewhat flaky.

I have some idea what a Control Panel and/or Hosting Software does but no idea what it ought to do and what features I need.

I just want a stable automatic hosting solution I can sell.

It needs to allow people to sign-up (Interact with my payment gateway), create an account, manage the account, bill them and tell the sys admin when somethings wrong.

I realise I will have to create plans, determine pricing, deal with AR/AP, and provide excellent customer srevice . But I can't do that if I reading several dozen 1000 page RFCs to figure how to run Linux/Apache/MySQL/Qmail/PHP/CGI/SSL.

That's what I hire experts for to the job I'm not willing to spend the next 5 years learning only to realise I should have hired an expert in the first place.

I don't know how to build, repair or make a toaster (nor do I care) but I know how to make money from using one. Same thing here.

I'm seriously thinking of transfering my existing customers to a reseller account. Any advice on that?

Wow, that was a bit of a rant. Definitely shot gun spray with no intended target.

If I offended anyone I'm sorry. Obviuosly I needed to vent.

Any advice/info anyone has is greatly appreciated!

The control panel your looking for is something like cPanel, there are also new control panels coming out that have those said features and more :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D

Thanks Neo! cPanel has a pretty good licensing deal on at the moment. But I was thinking about Open Source solutions. I'll try it out on a new box.

No Problem..Also try these:

http://webcp.can-host.com

http://simplecp.com

They are both free and and open source I beleive.