Well after litterally trying every major helpdesk application on the market, I have settled for Cerberus Helpdesk. IMO, it's an absolutely wonderful helpdesk that no other helpdesk can touch!!

For instance, I've used Perldesk, eSupport, Deskpro ($800), Request Tracker and even fork nearly $600 for DapperDesk and none of these programs come CLOSE to what Cerberus offers. It's truely a shame an application of this altitude doesnt deserve more recognition.

Here are some qualities of the program.

Speed = Its PHP so its DAMN fast unlike Perldesk. Atm my helpdesk has over 6,000 tickets and it still runs amazingly fast..

Features = This is where this program truely shows its power. Its virtually got every feature a serious web hosting company needs. Support for multiple queues, departments, autoresponders, the most advanced tech management tools, signatures, templates, EVERYTHING!!!

Price = You can either get the guys who made it to host it for a low monthly fee or pay a one-time license.

I love this program so much!!! And NO I'm not some advertiser for this company, I'm just so happy I finally found something that'll make handling support so much easier. Spending hundreds of hours configuring and trying out different program puts a strain on ya overtime.. ;)

If anyone has similar experiences, please share.

:D

You forgot to advertise their URL.

I did a search, here it is http://www.cerberusweb.com/.

Don't have time to look through right now.

Hope it helps.

:D

Originally posted by ZiCmaN
I did a search, here it is http://www.cerberusweb.com/.

Don't have time to look through right now.

Hope it helps.

:D
Huh, that is interesting..... I have CerberusHelpdesk.com.

They lack one thing: SUPPORT!

Originally posted by addaction
They lack one thing: SUPPORT! What do you mean, exactly?

I found this page: http://www.cerberusweb.com/support.php

Reading their support forum I saw many customers complaining that they bought the program but could not get support or key.

When you read stories like this and having to wait a week for a reply, it is better to stay away from a company like this.

That was the reason for my remark.

Pity because the demo does look promising.

So what's the deal universal2001? Did you get it installed and working with no problem -- and what OS would you be using. I too, like some of things I've seen so far, but if I can learn from the experience of others, sounds like a plan to me. ;)

ops i forgot to mention the url. lol

I used the Redhat 6.2 version, even although they have one for Redhat 7.3.. support is a bit slowbut if add them to your ICQ list you usually get someone instantly.. I usually find that a helpdesk application does not require much support since the instructions are there.. install, and read the docs.. there's really nothing else that can be done.

:)

The CerberusHelpDesk is based off of RT2 functionality with a few kicks here and there, and written totally in PHP. I haven't use it, but at work, all we use is RT2 which is great once it's setup, but the downside is that it's Perl and the templating is strange which isn't very eye pleasing.

Cerberus's demo on the other hand since it has nicer colors with the same feel as RT (Response Tracker btw), I imagine a very good product if it's not riddled with bugs. I don't mind if installation doesn't go so smoothly, but once it's installed and works well, that's where they should deserve their props.

If their features matches up to RT with a few added goodies like templates, canned responses, etc. Then I think it beats the pants off of other help desks. I stand by RT2 and from the looks of Cerberus demo, it stands above the rest of the freeware and commercial support systems. And good price too.

We use RT and are getting sick of it, it is slowly bitchy to template, and no support ;). We are looking at cerberus now just installed the demo actually, and it looks like it is exactly what we need. It has smooth support flow outa the box unlike RT. And it has a built in KB and web features like perldesk coming out in a few weeks. I think cerberus will be a winner. Also can provide support for all three brands, pegasus, mehost and dedicatednow easily private branded without 3 installs.

Just my 0.02's

Originally posted by Xanthis
The CerberusHelpDesk is based off of RT2 functionality with a few kicks here and there, and written totally in PHP. I haven't use it, but at work, all we use is RT2 which is great once it's setup, but the downside is that it's Perl and the templating is strange which isn't very eye pleasing.

Cerberus's demo on the other hand since it has nicer colors with the same feel as RT (Response Tracker btw), I imagine a very good product if it's not riddled with bugs. I don't mind if installation doesn't go so smoothly, but once it's installed and works well, that's where they should deserve their props.

If their features matches up to RT with a few added goodies like templates, canned responses, etc. Then I think it beats the pants off of other help desks. I stand by RT2 and from the looks of Cerberus demo, it stands above the rest of the freeware and commercial support systems. And good price too.

How does this compare to the Inverseflow product? We've been looking for a new helpdesk, and we were thinking of going with the Inverseflow product, but this does look interesting.

Has anyone used both products, and can give their opinions, pro/con etc?

Tom

Inverseflow didn't impress me at all, I actually think Inverseflow isn't that good honestly.

Originally posted by jayglate
Inverseflow didn't impress me at all, I actually think Inverseflow isn't that good honestly.

Would you mind elaborate this conclusion.

Well, I'm down to InverseFlow and Cerberus, which I honestly found for the first time today as a result of this thread. Obviously Cerberus has a richer feature set, but I don't think that makes IFlow an inferior product. It is a very good, basic helpdesk. One critical feature I require is the ability to accept tickets via email, as I want to create my own forms for customers to use. Another is the ability for customers to reply directly to the tickets they receive via email, instead of the current setup which requires the user to click on the link to respond via the web application. On a positive note, Dan has been very responsive and says both of these features are coming in the next release. I do like the ease of customization, I was able to drop in my logo and color scheme in literally 5 minutes, and it looked quite nice.

As far as Cerberus goes, it seems to be fairly nice. I personally have a need for the 3 domain license, which is somewhat expensive at $500, but the 1 domain 3 email license is a good deal at $150 (Could be cheaper than IFlow, which is basically one domain/unlimited email at $265 vs $299 for one domain unlimited email for Cerberus).

One shortcoming I noticed of the Cerberus is the ability to include KB content in replies; there's no way to link to or include content from KB articles. (IFlow doesn't do this, either.) It does include extensive email parsing support, which actually puts it on the other side of the scale from IFlow, as Cerberus doesn't seem to have an end-user web interface yet.

I started writing this post with the intent of purchasing IFlow next week, but have just realized that Cerberus is priced cheaper for more functionality. I really only need the functionality that IFlow provides (once e-mail support is included)... but why pay more for less functionality? If IFlow was $100 I'd have already bought it by now, but it's hard to justify the extra dollars for a relatively immature product.

Does anyone know how the upgrade path works for Cerberus? i.e., if I buy the $150 1 domain/3 email license now, is it simply a matter of paying the incremental difference of $350 for the $499 3 domain/unlimited email license?

Brandon

Yes, it does have an end user web interface, it is relased but not overlly funcational cerberus is coming out with ver 1.4 in the first week of jan which has all i belive all that has been mentioned in this thread. Including web based customer side interface to helpdesk and kb.

Originally posted by cbtrussell
Well, I'm down to InverseFlow and Cerberus, which I honestly found for the first time today as a result of this thread. Obviously Cerberus has a richer feature set, but I don't think that makes IFlow an inferior product. It is a very good, basic helpdesk. One critical feature I require is the ability to accept tickets via email, as I want to create my own forms for customers to use. Another is the ability for customers to reply directly to the tickets they receive via email, instead of the current setup which requires the user to click on the link to respond via the web application. On a positive note, Dan has been very responsive and says both of these features are coming in the next release. I do like the ease of customization, I was able to drop in my logo and color scheme in literally 5 minutes, and it looked quite nice.

As far as Cerberus goes, it seems to be fairly nice. I personally have a need for the 3 domain license, which is somewhat expensive at $500, but the 1 domain 3 email license is a good deal at $150 (Could be cheaper than IFlow, which is basically one domain/unlimited email at $265 vs $299 for one domain unlimited email for Cerberus).

One shortcoming I noticed of the Cerberus is the ability to include KB content in replies; there's no way to link to or include content from KB articles. (IFlow doesn't do this, either.) It does include extensive email parsing support, which actually puts it on the other side of the scale from IFlow, as Cerberus doesn't seem to have an end-user web interface yet.

I started writing this post with the intent of purchasing IFlow next week, but have just realized that Cerberus is priced cheaper for more functionality. I really only need the functionality that IFlow provides (once e-mail support is included)... but why pay more for less functionality? If IFlow was $100 I'd have already bought it by now, but it's hard to justify the extra dollars for a relatively immature product.

Does anyone know how the upgrade path works for Cerberus? i.e., if I buy the $150 1 domain/3 email license now, is it simply a matter of paying the incremental difference of $350 for the $499 3 domain/unlimited email license?

Brandon

Hello Everyone!

InverseFlow is actually a fairly mature product. Our product has some
features which other helpdesk don't, for example: E-mail ticket trigger
Auto-responders. A user can be sent an Auto Reply based on the content
of their ticket.

The upcoming version of the InverseFlow Help Desk 1.7 has some cool
toys in it also. It will be able to automatically or manually survey
customers for their satisfaction of support, generate reports based on
ticket and tech.

InverseFlow also supports file attachments via E-mail and via the ticket
form.

We also have a 20% off special and a package offering with our invoice
system right now. Let me know if you have any questions.

cerberus supports file attachments and also HTML emails as well. Its like Request Trackert with more options. :)

We tried out cerberus and many other ticket systems for about 4 months and cerberus was by far the best. We got great support even before we purchased our license.

I have noticed that during the past couple weeks support from them is quite lacking. Maybe due to the holidays.

Hi guys,

I thought I'd drop a quick note to say the Cerberus Helpdesk team really appreciates your comments so far!

The only point of contention I've seen raised isn't about the product, but regards support. A few quick notes for those of you who are interested or concerned:

1. For the most part Cerberus support issues are managed by our programmers seperate from our general support queues (we have a decent-sized e-commerce hosting customer base and have private development and support contracts we manage as well).

2. We're going through a server migration for the end of 2002 and wrapping up development and Q/A on 1.4.0 for a Jan 6th release. If you'd like a ChangeLog from 1.3.0 to 1.4.0 beta, shoot me an e-mail (below) and I'll fire the latest ChangeLog back.

3. With 1.4.0 we'll be introducing an exclusive address list for your queues (optional). This is basically a 'whitelist' of addresses or wildcards permitted to submit tickets. We'll be moving the existing Cerberus customer base to this new model to give you some solid, guaranteed turnaround times. The 1.4.0 public tools (helpdesk + knowledgebase) will allow you to manage your company's contact addresses.

4. Regarding pricing for 3 domains, the price structure will change slightly with the Jan 6th release. We currently include support costs in every package and are introducing the option to have a single support plan cover all product keys and purchases. I won't waste everyone's time here, e-mail me if you'd like more info.

5. Everyone at WHT is more than welcome to contact me directly if you'd like to discuss anything about the product or our company. Existing customers, potential customers, arch-rivals and complete strangers. ;)

Jeff Standen
Product Development Manager, Cerberus Helpdesk
WebGroup Media, LLC.
jeff@webgroupmedia.com

Office ICQ: 169686840
Office AIM: Jeff at WGM
Home ICQ: 4995690
Home AIM: clartok
(this should be in my profile as well)

Does anyone know how the upgrade path works for Cerberus? i.e., if I buy the $150 1 domain/3 email license now, is it simply a matter of paying the incremental difference of $350 for the $499 3 domain/unlimited email license?

Hi Brandon,

You are correct. An upgrade cost is the price difference between the packages. Upgrading is incredibly simply, just paste your new key in the GUI config area.

If you're looking at the 1 domain 3 queue version, you'd probably benefit from the impending January 2003 specials. E-mail, PM or IM if interested in the details in advance. :)

Thanks for your interest!

Does Cerberus support pop3 yet?

Installed it on ensim, had to browse their forum to get it up and running, but was painless all the same. The only things I find lacking is web interface for customers and ability to customise headers/footers. I tried the header.php and footer.php files but they were zend encoded. :(

Originally posted by vipe
Does Cerberus support pop3 yet?

Hi Vipe!

Yes, you can set up the parser's config.xml to check a POP3 box.

Set up a cron or windows scheduled task to run the parser; e.g.,

/path/to/cerberus /path/to/config.xml

That's it!

Thanks,

Originally posted by WebHozt
The only things I find lacking is web interface for customers and ability to customise headers/footers. I tried the header.php and footer.php files but they were zend encoded. :(

Hi Webhozt :)

There are public, opensource interfaces for the knowledgebase and the helpdesk. If you'd like a copy of the public-tools for 1.3.0, shoot me an e-mail.

These tools are really fleshed out for 1.4.0, which will remain opensource and will be posted to the site the first week of January with the 1.4.0 GUI+Parser update.

Some new things to look for:
* Address->Company Assignment: A company's contacts and managers can publically view the company's entire range of open support issues.

* Customer Reply, Close and Attachments: A customer can log into the public helpdesk to reply, close or add attachments to a ticket. This removes a customers need to be at their machine with their e-mail client (e.g., Outlook, Eudora) to get their issue resolved.

* Documented API: Access and info on our core objects, properties + methods we use to extend the helpdesk so you can take advantage of the fact the public-tools are opensource and tailor them to suit your needs.

A lot more.

If you have any questions, you're always welcome to e-mail or IM myself or the team.

Thanks!

Sounds great! What Im really interested in is the customer interface to the helpdesk with customisable headers and footers. The rest of the product is already perfectly in line with what we're looking for.

The public-user tools above are the customer interfaces. :)

You're welcome to edit the headers, footers and everything else -- the PHP source on those tools is completely open.

We're wrapping up testing on the new code and the Jan 6th release of the 1.4.0 GUI+Parser and Public-tools looks to be on schedule. :D

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I thought I just might point out the new features to expect in InverseFlow Help Desk v2.0 which will be coming out shortly.

* The big new feature will be satisfaction surveys. Admins can create a survey (up to 10 questions) which can be automatically sent out to users when tickets are closed. Each question will be rated from 1 to 5 as well as a box for comments. Graphs will display average ratings, etc. Many other neat little features related to surveys have been added.

* Tickets will now be able to be replied to directly via email rather than to go thru the web interface (although both methods will work fine).

* Staff ticket creation page. Staff can create and reply to a ticket all in one go. Useful for support by phone and such.

* Printable ticket pages. This feature has been needed for quite some time, so it was added.

* Other miscellaneous features that will be known at release date, which will be within the next 1-2 weeks.

Originally posted by heath
I thought I just might point out the new features to expect in InverseFlow Help Desk v2.0 which will be coming out shortly.

* The big new feature will be satisfaction surveys. Admins can create a survey (up to 10 questions) which can be automatically sent out to users when tickets are closed. Each question will be rated from 1 to 5 as well as a box for comments. Graphs will display average ratings, etc. Many other neat little features related to surveys have been added.

* Tickets will now be able to be replied to directly via email rather than to go thru the web interface (although both methods will work fine).

* Staff ticket creation page. Staff can create and reply to a ticket all in one go. Useful for support by phone and such.

* Printable ticket pages. This feature has been needed for quite some time, so it was added.

* Other miscellaneous features that will be known at release date, which will be within the next 1-2 weeks.

Sounds like an ad, maybe you should have used the ad forums for this!

Hey if the competition wants to keep bumping a Cerberus thread, we're all for it. ;)

Someone had asked about InverseFlow and specifically about not being able to reply to tickets via email. I don't really consider that an ad.

Jeff,

Can you tell us more about the online version of Cerberus? There was very little info on your website.

Specifically:

1. To use the online version would we redirect incoming mail to your server (change the mx records)?

2. Are there any differences in functionality between the online version and the local version?

3. It appears that you only offer one licensing plan for ~$40/month. Any plans to offer a 'starter' plan for 1-3 email addresses (same domain)? Or a plan with a lower GB limit?

Thank you.

Scott

btw, I think it's helpful for sales people for competing products to post in these threads, even if they do sometimes sound like ads. It's better than searching the ad forums for the answer to a specific question.

Hi Scott,

Originally posted by scottc
Can you tell us more about the online version of Cerberus? There was very little info on your website.


Sure, I'll see to it that we get more info up about the hosted-app offering. :)

Originally posted by scottc
1. To use the online version would we redirect incoming mail to your server (change the mx records)?


That's a possibility, but there's no need to redirect your entire domain's e-mail to our boxes. You may want support@yourcompany.com to be managed by the helpdesk, but scott@yourcompany.com to be a normal POP3 box under your control.

When you sign up for Cerberus Online, we provide you with an address that looks something like:

yourcompany_com@cerberus2.webgroupmedia.com

You could then simply (and selectively) forward support@, sales@, billing@ (etc) to that address. That's it! No DNS changes, you still fully control and manage your MX record.

Originally posted by scottc
2. Are there any differences in functionality between the online version and the local version?


Functionally, there is no difference -- they are exactly the same program. The only real difference is the online key is structured differently and is not transferrable to a standalone installation.

For our online offering we use our Cerberus Shared Hosting Parser, which allows a single copy of the parser to manage dozens (or hundreds) of different domains w/ seperate GUI installs. This is ideal for xSPs and resellers, and will be available in a later offering.

Originally posted by scottc
3. It appears that you only offer one licensing plan for ~$40/month. Any plans to offer a 'starter' plan for 1-3 email addresses (same domain)? Or a plan with a lower GB limit?


We pride ourselves in being flexible. Send me an e-mail with your exact needs and we'll work something out. :)

Originally posted by scottc
btw, I think it's helpful for sales people for competing products to post in these threads, even if they do sometimes sound like ads. It's better than searching the ad forums for the answer to a specific question.

I'm with you there, we're all friends here. It's best when everyone is presented with as much information as possible from which to draw their own conclusions.

That's why we come to WHT.

Thanks for your questions, Scott. If I need to elaborate on anything, feel free to drop me a line through IM/PM or e-mail.

I'd hate to say this but CerberusHelp is much better coded than the others and is actively supported. When I saw it initially months ago it had a few missing features which forced me not to use it, however during the last couple of months the program has had so many changes and new features that have been added. I have never seen such a helpdesk add some many features to it in so little time... I really can't wait how good this app will be in a few months time. ;)

Originally posted by vipe
Does Cerberus support pop3 yet?

This is an undocumented feature, here is the configuration directives for it:
inside the <configuration> area of config.xml
* <pop3>
* * <host value="yourdomain.com" />
* * <user value="pop3user" />
* * <password value="pop3pass" />
* * <port value="110" />
* * <delete value="false" />
* </pop3>

Cheers,
Ben

Wow, XML!?!

That looks great. It looks well worth the price and looks like the company stands behind their products.

Originally posted by bhalsted


This is an undocumented feature, here is the configuration directives for it:


Cheers,
Ben

InverseFlow also supports this, and goes a step further. We support multiple POP3 and piping E-mail accounts. They can be setup via the web based interface.

Originally posted by Refsoft


InverseFlow also supports this, and goes a step further. We support multiple POP3 and piping E-mail accounts. They can be setup via the web based interface.

I was already aware of that - I own a license for IF HelpDesk because Cerberus didn't offer pop3 support at that time. Jeff spent alot of time helping me trying to get the demo to work when I didn't even purchase a license. I think both brands are excellent products and as long as the competition stays friendly - it only benefits everyone in the end. :)

I think both brands are excellent products and as long as the competition stays friendly - it only benefits everyone in the end.

Ditto that. Good to see you both promoting the merits of your own products without taking shots at the other. I like friendly competition, and refuse to do business with individuals/companies that constantly slam their competitors.

When I first started looking at helpdesk products several months ago, I sort of settled on perldesk as a queen of the pigs type product. Not a slam at perldesk per se, as it was and remains very functional and popular tool.

Now all of a sudden we have two extremely good looking, highly functional php/mysql based help desk solutions available at a reasonable price. Both seem extremely capable and I'm sure I could personally make do with either. So what'll it be boys, I'll guarantee a sale THIS WEEK to the best offer I receive via PM. :D :D :D

Brandon

Originally posted by cbtrussell
So what'll it be boys, I'll guarantee a sale THIS WEEK to the best offer I receive via PM. :D :D :D

Brandon

I'd also be interested in EXACTLY the same thing. ;)

Me too, I guess. I'm ready to buy, and both seem to fit our needs.

I'm all for negotiation, if you guys want to negotiate!

Tom

Hi guys,

Just a quick update:

The feedback and comments we've received from this thread have been great, and a real boost for the development team to get 1.4.0 out the door and into your hands.

Improved public interfaces (helpdesk + knowledgebase) for your clients seem to top the request list. Keep those suggestions coming! I'd imagine a good 80% of the forthcoming update is user feedback incarnate. ;) Use our forums (www.cerberusweb.com/forums) or e-mail (cerberus@webgroupmedia.com).

Those who have requested info on the January 2003 specials or the 1.4.0 ChangeLog should have it. We're also putting together a list of planned features and user suggestions (our 'dev roadmap') and will be posting it with the update files.

Happy New Year, guys!

I also would like to thank everyone. Competition drives innovation. Cerberus is a great product and is a very strong competitor to InverseFlow.

Best wishes,

Hey Dan,

Thanks! It's been a pleasure sharing the 'virtual podium' with ya. :)

Good luck to your team in 2003.

I must say I have been really impressed with the demo.. looking forward to the new features too!

Very interested in the 'specials' - you are looking at another sale here guys :)

Craig

Jeff,

I sent you an email a couple days ago, did you get it?

Hey guys!

Craig: Thanks for the feedback! Just saw your other message, I'll get right back to you on the request. :)

WebHozt: Hey there. :) I know we were chatting on the trial key, I believe you brought up catch-all queues, right? That's definitely something I'd like to see implemented on the unlimited licenses -- I'll talk to the parser guys and get an ETA. We're already doing something similar with filters (e.g., *@webgroupmedia.com), so I don't imagine it should take more than a day to implement and half a week to test thoroughly.

good to see many people here like this product. ;)
I thought for a second I was the only one who liked cerberus but im wrong. :)

I would like to add to this post something that everyone should know.. This helpdesk helped saved me COUNTLESS hours today. Earliy this morning, we received well over 4,000 SPAM emails/tickets from some individuals who decided to play some games with us. Thanks to cerberus helpdek's anti-spamming tools and the ability to mass DELETE emails, we were able to remove all 4000 email/tickets in under 5 minutes. Plus BLOCK the spammers email address. If I had been using my other helpdesk application, this would of taken me literally HOURS to remove.

Once again, the cerberus developers have delivered. :)

Originally posted by universal2001
I would like to add to this post something that everyone should know.. This helpdesk helped saved me COUNTLESS hours today. Earliy this morning, we received well over 4,000 SPAM emails/tickets from some individuals who decided to play some games with us. Thanks to cerberus helpdek's anti-spamming tools and the ability to mass DELETE emails, we were able to remove all 4000 email/tickets in under 5 minutes. Plus BLOCK the spammers email address. If I had been using my other helpdesk application, this would of taken me literally HOURS to remove.

Once again, the cerberus developers have delivered. :)

Ouch, that had to suck. Those pesky kids. :( However, I don't follow your logic. If there are such great 'anti-spamming tools' in Cerberus - wouldn't it have been prevented BEFORE you received 4000 email/tickets? :confused:

If there are such great 'anti-spamming tools' in Cerberus - wouldn't it have been prevented BEFORE you received 4000 email/tickets?

Vipe: We could always switch our focus from "e-mail management" to "spam management". :D

Seriously though, spam blocking/detection systems are best implemented at the MTA level.

We've allowed sender blocking (by address) for several versions now, and 1.4.0 will allow the option to have a 'whitelist' helpdesk or queues -- in other words, a helpdesk that only approved customers can create tickets on. Obviously this is best used in environments with paid support or service level agreements (SLA) rather than pre-sales, though it would avoid unsolicited e-mail completely.

universal2001: Glad to hear you resolved that in a couple minutes! Earlier today we had a customer on one of our e-commerce shared hosting boxes set up (in Plesk) 14 e-mail accounts as mail groups that each included all 13 of the other accounts. This created what we called "a terrible recursive pyramid scheme mess" of 200,000 e-mails. Luckily with a few custom scripts and an hour we cleaned up about 99% of it in Qmail. (Note: This wasn't a Cerberus user or customer. :))

Have a good one, guys!

I put in the email to a block list once the spammer started his actions. How on earth do I block an email address when I dont know who's going to spam me?

Originally posted by vipe


Ouch, that had to suck. Those pesky kids. :( However, I don't follow your logic. If there are such great 'anti-spamming tools' in Cerberus - wouldn't it have been prevented BEFORE you received 4000 email/tickets? :confused:

No, what I meant was not preventing before the 1st of the 4000 email/tickets - but rather prevented from getting that many in the first place. Blocking a spammer email address after the fact you recieved 4000 spams isn't what most would consider anti-spammer tools. I guess what I'm proposing or asking about is there should be a sort of flood control in place so you don't end up having 4000 email/tickets in the first place. It might have took you less than 5 minutes to clean it up and blocked ONE email (or IP), but it's not going to stop it from happening again, correct?

true, i guess Jeff can add that to the todo list in the next version... somehow add some AI in the program so that the same address cannot post more than 10 tickets per hour or something like that.. ?

I think it might be better to implement a flood control of no more than 1 ticket per 60 seconds or something like that.

Hey Guys!

universal2001: Was the e-mail subject and sender always identical? It seems at least the sender was, as you said blocking stopped the flood. I sense a new feature in the making. :)

Vipe: We do have auto responder war checks that operate under that principle. For example: Customer sends in a ticket; helpdesk sends an autoresponse; customer's mailbox sends an autoresponse with a new subject (e.g., "Out of office"); without a warCheck this would create a new ticket and go on recursively. However it's only blocking for about a 3-10 second window. Universal could have been subject to a continuous loop of e-mails, of which one every 5 seconds got through (probably unlikely, as that would have taken 5 hours to accumulate 4000).

I definitely agree, it would be much better to control a flood based on IP. This would be slightly more overhead in the parser (maintaining a time/IP matrix), but probably worth every extra cycle. ;)

I'll talk to the parser guys about this Saturday morning.

WebHozt: Definitely! That would tie into the above, and I'd leave the time window user configurable.

We have a couple pages of notes from this thread and, as usual, this has been some great feedback, guys. We really appreciate it!

Major Disappointment with Cerberus

Never have I tried to follow such convoluted instructions. And when seeking help and going to http://www.cerberusweb.com/installation.php I see 4 mySQL errors showing - seems they can't even install correctly themselves.

As I was getting an exact php error msg. on my install, I went to their Forum thinking others must have run into the same problem. I did find one post [ http://www.cerberusweb.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1335&sid=a36209559d5f8dd5edf8f8eff293128d#1335 ] that was the exact same problem, but it was 2 months old and had never been answered.

So am I just having a "dumb day" or have others experienced problems installing Cerberus?

Ran into a problem because ensim has a different file structure. Ben [I think] had posted specific instructions for ensim on their forums. Following that, there were no problems. I agree the instructions could be made simpler.

Rob: Looks like you found an outdated link. I've gone ahead and set it up to forward to the proper page, which is:

http://www.cerberusweb.com/downloads.php

When you get to the page, click on your server OS for install instructions.

Ben went back and replied to your link for our forums as well. Often times if someone replies through multiple support channels (forum, helpdesk, direct email, IM, PM, etc.) we'll just solve the issue through the quickest means (usually e-mail or IM).

Anyhow, there's a response on there for you now that should help solve the issue. If you still need help getting the system running, shoot me a PM or e-mail.

Thanks,

Hate to break the news, Jeff, but the "installation.php" link is provided in the download file > docs\INSTALL. The redirect may help people to get another page, but I'm not so sure it will help with installing.

Let's see, I downloaded the GUI file, but that doesn't include the Database file. Or should I download the Parser file? I wonder which I should install first???

Why not put everything in one nice neat Package? And give instructions according to how files should be installed/setup in their correct order. There was also mention made of a thread in the Cerberus Forum, as to specific instructions for Exim. Are people supposed to think/know there are going to be problems and automatically go to the Forum to search & hunt for whatever?

Rob: Hey. It really doesn't matter what order you install the components in, as long as the GUI, database and parser are all installed.

I definitely agree a single .tar.gz bundle per OS is the best way to go. We'll see if we can get 1.4.0 out in that format (on Monday) after our dev/QA marathon ends this weekend.

If you're still having trouble and need to vent, that's fine! But let's take it to PM, IM or e-mail.

Note: Edited to add contact info. Check my profile.

Thanks!

true, i guess Jeff can add that to the todo list in the next version... somehow add some AI in the program so that the same address cannot post more than 10 tickets per hour or something like that.. ?

Hey guys (for those of you who were interested),

As promised: Cerberus 1.4.0 was released on Monday. The details of the update are in our forums:
http://www.cerberusweb.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=372

Working through last weekend, Ben and I implemented a 'mail rules' system similar to Outlook Express. You could now use SpamAssassin (or a similar product) to flag inbound ticket subjects with "*****SPAM*****" and set up a rule to have the parser filter these into a "Possible Spam" queue, or simply set their status to 'dead'.

The potential of the message rules system is nearly unlimited -- you can do substring searches on ticket subjects, senders, destination queues (etc) and perform actions accordingly.

We'll be expanding on this system quite a bit for future versions as we bring in the escalation/SLA framework.

Also as promised, the January 2003 special prices are up at:
http://www.cerberusweb.com/

If you have any questions or feedback on 1.4.0, or anything for that matter, feel free to drop me an e-mail or PM.

Thanks guys!

Sounds great. I dont see any change in the price however? And it seems to me that some products available before have been removed?

Oh and one question, to upgrade from 1.30 to 1.4.0 I just have to run the sql commands and nothing else?

Originally posted by WebHozt
And it seems to me that some products available before have been removed?

I think so too. There is no more 1 domain/3 email option, so the price jumps from $50 for one address to $200 for unlimited, which is overkill for someone who just needs one domain and a few email addresses.

Sounds great. I dont see any change in the price however? And it seems to me that some products available before have been removed?

Hey WebHozt!

The price changes are on the site. The 1 domain unlimited was $299, it's now $199. 3 domain was $499, it's now $397 (1 domain unlimited ($199) plus 2 additional domains ($99x2)).

Oh and one question, to upgrade from 1.30 to 1.4.0 I just have to run the sql commands and nothing else?

1. Replace the parser with the new 1.4.0 parser.
2. Run the SQL upgrade queries.
3. Replace the GUI with the 1.4.0 gui PHP (and update the config.php)

That should be it! If you need help, IM me. Thanks!

I think so too. There is no more 1 domain/3 email option, so the price jumps from $50 for one address to $200 for unlimited, which is overkill for someone who just needs one domain and a few email addresses.

Hey Acronym BOY,

You could also look at it as the existing $149 customers with 3 queues being able to upgrade to unlimited queues for only $50 (rather than $150).

Note: You can still have multiple e-mail addresses with the one queue version!

General Queue = sales@yourdomain.com, billing@yourdomain.com, support@yourdomain.com, etc.

You just can't have multiple queues to faciliate user rights for different departments and balance your workload by dividing it to conquer it.

Thanks!

I must say, I thought installing was nearly a breeze! I was talking to Jeff and Ben over this past week in preperation to buy. I demoed the product, then went ahead and bought it. I was going to get Jeff to install it, but our schedules didn't quite match up over the weekend I wanted to get it installed, so I went ahead and tried it myself.

I must say, its really not that hard. Upload the parser, chmod it. Upload the GUI (in binary ;-) ), and then create a database, put the SQL comments in the SQL section of phpMyAdmin and vuala, db created. Then just edit the config file to the database and you've got yourself a working version of CerberusWeb (after you get the email piping to work, which after some lil tweaks (not every system is the same, they can't document for every system)) I got working smoothly and have setup about 4 queues now.

Its very simple I think, don't need a rocket scientist, but you probably do need someone over the age of 4, just a guess though. The learning curve on this thing is fast too, its pretty easy to get around in cerberus and understand how things work. Great program, I'll be doing the upgrade to v1.40 tonight, looking forward to the spam blocking. :)

Its very simple I think, don't need a rocket scientist, but you probably do need someone over the age of 4, just a guess though.

LOL :stickout:

looks like 1.4.0 is finally here.. (YAY)

http://www.cerberusweb.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1349

Egotistical Egotists, Echoing Egotistical Ecstasies. :stickout:

Originally posted by jstanden
Hey Acronym BOY,

You could also look at it as the existing $149 customers with 3 queues being able to upgrade to unlimited queues for only $50 (rather than $150).

Note: You can still have multiple e-mail addresses with the one queue version!

General Queue = sales@yourdomain.com, billing@yourdomain.com, support@yourdomain.com, etc.

You just can't have multiple queues to faciliate user rights for different departments and balance your workload by dividing it to conquer it.

Thanks!

True, I didn't think of that. Thanks!

I also checked up on the thread I started here:

http://www.cerberusweb.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=369

Thanks again for the replies, this sounds like a great product and will definitely be placing in order in on month's time. Thanks for all the pre-sale support, guys!

Has anyone else got any experiences with the Cerberus Helpdesk software? Especially those who have said they are currently testing it, do you think it is a good piece of helpdesk software? We're thinking of using it here. We'll have to customize it slightly, but the features on it so far look amazing.

Alan

Yeah, still testing it on the trial. Looks like what we need, just wish there was an email catchall option in-built. Havent had time to upgrade to 1.4.0 or install the front-end yet. But so far its exactly what we need.

You can do email catchall... just have your email system setup to forward catchall to a specific address. Then that address goes into a queue.

So whatever@intrahost.com goes to link@intrahost.com. link@intrahost.com is a specific queue in cerberus. Is that what you're talking about?


Non-the-less, ceberus is great, we have been using it for a week now and its almost exactly what we needed. The front-end is a lil skimpy, but they're working on that. But it really is a great system and is actively developed. Ben and Jeff are great guys to work with too!

Sounds good, it's the front-end that I'll probably have to do further coding with to integrate it with either PerlBill or an in-house client management system. But as soon as I find some time, I may install the trial version. Does anyone know when their next version will be out? Their sales repsonse times seem quite bad as I sent in an email to the sales email address yesterday and also sent another a few hours ago, but no reply from either.

Alan

Hey Acronym BOY, IntraHost, WebHozt: Thanks for the kind words and feedback! I've double checked to make sure all your concerns & suggestions are on my notes from this thread. ;)

Hey Alan,

1.4.0 just came out on Monday (Jan, 6 2003). We've been doing regular releases every 3-4 weeks.

Due to the release, we've been working a dozen install requests this afternoon -- most of our sales/support staff is involved in this. We should be wrapping up this batch in the next few minutes and I'll make sure someone gets right on those sales tickets for ya.

My office ICQ is also 169686840 if you have some quick/urgent questions.

Enjoy the weekend, guys! :D