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Thread: Is Webmin that bad?
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12-31-2006, 12:24 PM #1WHT Addict
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Is Webmin that bad?
I have read several threads on this forum about Webmin. It doesn't seem the best bet for commercial shared hosting. It seems people are more comfortable with cPanel...
The rvskin addon doesn't look too bad for cPanel, but I haven't seen any decent webmin theme. Also, webmin is not very welcoming for a new user because of its interface. What do you think? Is it worth saving $30/month?Josh Lieber
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12-31-2006, 12:27 PM #2Web Hosting Master
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Its all about what market youa re going for with your hosting. If you are going for people that are not tech-savvy cPanel may be better - though it also may be overwhelming.
If the skin is your only problem you could always make your own for Webmin. In general people seem to think the flashy stuff and all of the buttons is better - which describes cPanel. Webmin gets the job done but is not as flashy. I have also never used webmin in a shared host enviroment so I am unsure of how efficient it is or how smoothly it runs.John W, CISSP, C|EH
MS Information Security and Assurance
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12-31-2006, 02:11 PM #3WHT Addict
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I have used Webmin, and it's not easy for a novice to find where stuff is.
Josh Lieber
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12-31-2006, 02:19 PM #4Web Hosting Master
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Webmin is a BRILLIANT piece of software if you're only hosting for yourself - it'll save you from cPanel exploit attempts, lots of resource usage and licensing fees. You can get the StressFree Tiger theme to make it look imho nicer than cPanel.
There are some issues for novice users however, though there is extensive documentation which will make it easier for you.
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12-31-2006, 03:49 PM #5Living in the Virtual World
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It's great for the initial setup of basic applications, but for running a hosting environment a control panel such as cPanel, DirectAdmin, or Plesk is the way to go.
Check out ravencore (http://www.ravencore.com). I am using it on 3 servers right now. It's very similar to directadmin, just a few less features. It's extremely easy to install, and can be used for a hosting environment or just for a few sites. It's very server friendly and only takes about 64mb ram to use (when in idle). Overall, it's a great control panel considering it's free.» VPSFuze.com - Performance should be noticeable - VPS Hosting at its best.
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12-31-2006, 03:55 PM #6Retired Moderator
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Honestly, when I first bought a server without a control panel I installed webmin. I tinkered around with it a bit, then promptly forgot about it. I found webmin to be a bit overly complicated (I found it was just as easy to use command line, and command line works on every server ). I had qmailadmin / vqadmin for creating email accounts, and for the rest I learned to edit the configs manually.
Alex
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12-31-2006, 04:17 PM #7Web Hosting Master
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Originally Posted by VT6
I agree. Webmin is a great program. It's just not designed for people that don't already know the technology.Show your reciprocal links on your website. eReferrer
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12-31-2006, 04:47 PM #8Web Hosting Master
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If you want a demo of Webmin with the StressFree Tiger theme PM me - I bought a month of a VPS to teach a friend about Linux and we haven't got round to it yet.
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12-31-2006, 07:40 PM #9WHT Addict
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I use webmin in addition to any other panel i use at the moment.
I got addicted to webmin.
Is so easy and friendly.
Great for monitoring log files and much more.
bob
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12-31-2006, 07:58 PM #10Junior Guru Wannabe
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01-01-2007, 10:34 AM #11WHT Addict
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Yeah, my customers don't even know what "Linux" or "FreeBSD" means, so if I give them Webmin, they'll probably look at it with the eyes wide open.
Josh Lieber
█ iTechPath | Fully managed servers with 24/7/365 support.
█ PHP 5, MySQL 5, RHEL, cPanel & rvskins, and much more...
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01-01-2007, 11:55 AM #12ex. *** *****
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I love webmin, I just don't use it, I just never will.
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01-01-2007, 01:13 PM #13Web Hosting Evangelist
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I think you should check virtualmin. The paid version is much cheaper than CPanel and is feature rich.
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01-01-2007, 03:30 PM #14Junior Guru Wannabe
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Why I prefer webmin, well...kinda
First, let me preface this with the fact that I don't really like control panels, at all. What I don't like about them is the fact that they can't seem to follow any conventions or standards on how or where configuration files are supposed to be kept in linux. I'm an old-school guy that prefers the shell for just about everything, including development, so I know I come to this conversation with some long-standing bias.
Anyone who has ever managed a linux box via the command line and then tried to diagnose a bug or problem in one of the major control panels knows what I'm talking about though.
Webmin adapts to any underlying configuration, which is why it's less intrusive than the others. One can go from webmin to no webmin back to webmin and not have any significant underlying changes.
The only circumstance where I installed webmin was for non-technical people to be able to do things like adding virtual hosts, changing passwords, making email accounts and groups and so on. This was for in-house use only, not something we would ever consider giving to our customers.
On the other hand, I have a current customer that uses Plesk. He knows the concepts of web hosting, but nothing technical, so Plesk works for him great. The only problem is the underlying mesh on the host OS and how long it takes to track down bugs and fix them. Stack trace of Plesk crashes are almost completely useless and I've had, on several occasions, to patch Plesk, or worse, go in an manually edit MySQL because of some process that died halfway through, like deleting a virtual host.
Just my 0.02.
Ciao
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01-01-2007, 07:28 PM #15WHT Addict
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Never tried Webmin.
CPanel might be a favourite, but also the most expencive.
But there are others...
I use DirectAdmin on one of my servers. Works great. And $299 for a liftetime deal isn't to bad.
But if You like to look at some other free options, check out these:
xpanel.com
web-cp.net
vhcs.net
syscp.de
Domain Technologie Control
ispconfig.org
Sammy
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01-01-2007, 07:45 PM #16Aspiring Evangelist
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Agreeing with VT6 on this, if you go webmin, the tiger streefree theme is very nice, that's what i use (i have better stuff to spend $35/m on ), as it's IMO a very nice theme...
http://www.stress-free.co.nz/webmin-theme/|| Semi-professional PHP developer || Exams right now, don't I just feel lucky? ||
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01-01-2007, 08:18 PM #17Temporarily Suspended
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I actually like webmin most because it does NOT have those tiny fonts in its base-themes.
The theme that suits me most is the MSC.Linux theme. All the others make me blind. Who needs all the white on their screen? I get headaches from all the light.
You can easily customize webmin modules in ways that they will be 'dumb user' proof. I've very often used it for non-technical users, via usermin and changing the module interfaces by editing them, or getting one of the thousands third party versions. Webmin kicks every other admin panel's *** ;-) You just need to know how to configure it.
Quite often it's even a better control-panel than the desktop linux panels are. Installing webmin is one of the first things I do on a linux system. And yes, it's secure if you use it wisely. Never seen a breach on my systems caused by webmin's core.
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01-01-2007, 09:26 PM #18Retired Moderator
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Webmin is an excellent free resource for all linux servers. I think it's a lot better than spending around $35/m for cPanel.
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01-01-2007, 09:33 PM #19Web Hosting Master
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Webmin is good but only for a single user as already mentioned. Another good free alternative is Web-CP which I have running on a basic box for a couple of low usage sites.
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01-01-2007, 10:35 PM #20Newbie
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I'm with sammy95 on this one, there are much better free control panels (or even cheap ones) out there that do the same thing, but in a much more effective method.
Personally I use VHCS (not without modification, apply the security patches from the forums otherwise you will be easy to hack, but with them it is a perfect solution) on my linux boxes, for everything else (and what I used to use on my Linux boxes) there is always cubepanel. Its not mature yet but for the stage it is at it is very good, and on RedHat OS's is the easiest around to install.
cubepanel.com
Webmin should never be used in a shared hosting environment. It is basically designed for controlling application servers.
-Chris
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01-01-2007, 11:31 PM #21Temporarily Suspended
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Originally Posted by celliott
If anything Webmin is perfect for as many users as you need it for. Its webserver is very robust even, but you can make it part of Apache too.
Originally Posted by kwigibo
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01-01-2007, 11:47 PM #22Newbie
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Originally Posted by marsepein
Usermin however, is different, it was designed to do hosting, but it has all the extra bulk of webmin with it. For web hosting, Virtualmin is the best *min based system to use, as Usermin again is designed to do what webmin does, just on a more user-based level. If you really have to use a *min use Virtualmin. Personally I would recommend the other control panels as per mine and others posts.http://kwigibo.co.uk | Application development and hosting for the real world..
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01-02-2007, 01:35 AM #23Disabled
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webmin is ok, i set up my first server with webmin and it took me a long time needless to say, Now I just use it in conjunction with my other control panels for other stats, service monitoring, etc; But as soon as Im done with it I turn it off, Im pretty sure they have the latest webmin pretty secure but the ones before it, the last one for example you could hack it and view any root owned file. i say you could scan a few subnets and still find lots of vulnerable ones running out there.
I think there are better free control panels like vhcs but it as well has had its fair share of security problems. Well they all have even the paid ones, you just gotta keep up to date anything you use.
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01-02-2007, 02:37 AM #24LORD OF THE RINGS
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If you are doing web hosting business, then the customers always like a user-friendly, customizable and frustration-free hosting. Among all the control panels, Cpanel is the most user-friendly and you will get a lot of help from their official forums (http://forums.cpanel.net) , where as other community forums for Swsoft, DA etc. are not that active.
Webmin is good if you host only your friends/relatives websites.
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01-02-2007, 04:13 AM #25Junior Guru Wannabe
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Originally Posted by Sammy95ServerTweak Networks, LLC >> ServerTweak.com
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