Control panels...vote/opinions.

[QT]

I've been reading a lot about the Helm control panel lately and I was looking for a few opinions. This may be something worth looking into as it has many nice features...and may be a choice above Ensim. It seems some providers are already removing Ensim and replacing it with Helm. :eek:

[Tino Didriksen]

No Webmin+Usermin+Virtualmin?

Maybe not as advanced, but certainly useful, and more importantly free.

[spsmcc]

what is helm?

edit: oooh seckzi, it does billing too.

[QT]

The billing is what caught my eye. Not to mention I've done some reading from other forums and the majority seems to agree with Helm.

[Shane]

Helm is the best.

I'm currently working on a control panel of my own - written in C# using ASP.NET. I have a *very* small preview available at http://www.shanebauer.com/ViewEntry.aspx?id=22 . Any feedback/feature requests would be greatly appreciated.

Few notes:

- The UI will change. The UI is temporary.
- Currently supports IIS 6.0 and MailEnable. The package is module-based so it wouldn't be hard to add support for something.
- It will be released under my company, not my personal site. I just use my personal blog to show it off. :)

EDIT: I can't type.

[QT]

Originally posted by Shane


EDIT: I can't type.

Most of us can't...we just like to pretend we do. ;)

kind of like admins and poorgrammers who think they know how to spell.... :eek:

:p

[brent]

Doesn't bash count as a control panel? :)

[-RJ]

So, why is Helm better than Ensim?

I'm currently using Helm, and in my case, it's veeeeeeery sloooooow... It seems pretty nice though, in terms of features. I'm disappointed though, that I can't just password protect a directory.

For me the billing is a little incomplete. They're working on the recurring billing feature. It will be a pretty kick-butt product if/when they complete this list of features: http://helm.webhostautomation.com/features/upcoming.asp

Also, my current problem is that when I setup a MySQL database, Helm is creating the DB on the wrong machine. Of course it could be a configuration problem, but (the host I'm using) said it's a defect in Helm and they're waiting to hear back from the company.

Anyway, does anyone have any specific issues with Ensim? I'm wondering, because I'll need to assess these things right away. I suppose I could always purchase and install it myself, if I want to stick with Helm....

[altp]

kind of like admins and poorgrammers who think they know how to spell....


hsuh.

damint.

/me grumbles.

;-)

[QT]

Originally posted by altp
hsuh.

damint.

/me grumbles.

;-)

LOL!

[-RJ]

I don't need to know how to spell... I just right-click in the text box and select "check spelling"

See --> http://www.iespell.com

So..... does anyone have any input on why they would be looking to move from Ensim to something else?

BTW, I just got my server setup..... Wooo Hooo! Only took 19 hours :mad:

But, I'm really stoked so far (of course I haven't done anything). Now I'm waiting for my additional IP's, so I can setup DNS, so I can start setting up sites, etc.... Lot's of waiting, but hopefully it will be worth it.

[bdee1]

i am starting to look at helm but currently use ensim and here are some of my dissapointments with ensim (for windows):

1) my eventual goal is to have an automated server - where users come to my web site, pay with a credit card for their hosting package, and my control panel creates their account and emails them their account info. i knwo this can be done with ensim but it seems like a pain.

2) no bandwidth monitoring - i guess this is for linux only.

3) its VERY difficult to find predesigned skins to buy

4) it seems liek this product was designed for linux and then ported to windows as an afterthought. all the good functionality in ensim is for the linux version. and for linux it is probably a great control panel but for windows it kind of left me hanging.

[-RJ]

You might want to check out:

http://www.hostingaccelerator.com/

Another 2 downsides to Ensim...

1 - Only one FTP user per account. Sometimes you will want to create an FTP account to give temporary access to a developer (without giving out the admin login). It appears that you can only create one ftp account in Ensim.

2 - Only one database per account. A lot of applications don't have a unique prefix for their table names and don't allow you to set one.... So, it's easy to have two applications that have a table called "users" or something like that. At that point, you'd have to separate them (or customize the code).

The upside to Ensim is that ServerBeach seems to have done a good job configuring the application on the images they use to set you up. If you check out Ensim's message boards, it would appear that the application just doesn't work at all.... people there are really upset... but I have a feeling their problems are all relating to an improper installation.

I've tried Helm for a little while and who knows I may go back, but I'll stick with Ensim for now.