Disable cPanel access for a specific user

[Pap]

Basically, I want to make a user account that has zero web functions, and not even any mail functions. The reason for this is so that a user can have a DNS zone. I could add them to Bind directly, but since they need a login/pass, I figure why not register it with WHM so if the user decides they want to upgrade to full webhosting and email, they don't have to remake their account.

I suppose I could set their diskspace to 0 and email accounts to 0, but then they would still have cPanel access and I think it would look very unprofessional to give them loads and loads of options in cPanel that they can not only see, but edit/modify/play around with as well that literally would do nothing (except take up system resources). Anything they changed in cPanel would reply with "Success! Your settings have been modified," and that is troubling.

I'm thinking maybe I could suspend the account, but then they would be unable to change their own password, and the DNS zone for the user would most likely get disabled too. I don't have a good way to test that at the moment.

Looking forward to hearing feedback. Thanks guys.

[RobertOnTheAir]

I think you can create a list in the Feature Manager with nothing in it and have your clients use that. Then when they decide to upgrade, you can just change they're package to use the "complete" feature list.

[Pap]

--
This feature is still being tested, feel free to avoid using it.
Currently only the bluelagoon theme supports this feature, however the default and iconic themes will support it shortly. At the current time this feature only removes the links to each feature from the menu; Soon it will block manual access of each feature as well
------

Any chance it has left the testing phase but the cPanel devs forgot to update that warning message? :/



Other than that, I think setting their frontend to xmail is the best I can do. They can change their password, but they can still send and receive mail even if I set max email accounts to 0. Oh well... I guess I'll just have to offer a FREE (as in NO COST WHATSOEVER!) email account with the purchase of a domain name.

[elleryjh]

Why don't you just suspend the account after you add it? It wont disable the dns zone.

Or you could just forget the account alltogether and JUST add the dns zone. Why do you need them to login at all? It shouldn't be too hard to do that, right?


If you need an account, copy a theme and delete all the pages that you don't need.

[SarcNBit]

Why can't you just create a zone file for them and leave it at that?

Why create a cPanel account for someone you do not want to allow any cPanel (or web or email) features for?

[Pap]

just to entertain the remote possibility that a person with a domain only account will want to upgrade to the hosting account. so by giving him a cPanel login/pass, i don't have to remake the account if he wants to upgrade. my worry is that if someone has a domain name only account with the login name "john" or whatever, that if someone comes along and buys a hosting account and wants to use the username "john" as well, then "john" would still be available as far as cpanel is concerned. now john (of the dns only account) can't upgrade to hosting without deleting his old account and making a new account.... bad for businesss you see.

I suppose I could always create them a cpanel account, then suspend it instantly. then they don't get email or ftp (http still works for some bizarre reason... but it just shows an empty dir). Hopefully suspending the account wont create a world of trouble in terms of the system functions.

[Pap]

Ah I just saw your post, elleryjh. I need them to have some type of login/pass no matter what, not only to allow them to modify their domain settings (like name servers, and if they want, A names, CNAMEs, etc..), but I might as well let them access their billing info and settings with that same login/pass too.

And just as a side note: I WILL do whatever I have to do to get it so there is only one login/pass the user has to have to access ALL features of his account. The angle I'm going for is that we make it easy to get your business/homepage on the internet.

maybe that should be our motto

[SarcNBit]

I must be missing something. Are you planning on setting up a reseller account for this user? How (or better yet why) would you have them edit their own zone files?

Who cares if the name "john" isn't available later on down the road? If someone wanted to sign up tomorrow for a real hosting account would you deny them the name "john" because you are hoping that one day (if you put your server on your hope chest and pray every night) that this other "john" is going to upgrade?

[Pap]

Yes, that is indeed my hope. The main reason I'm selling domain names in the first place is to get them in the door so I can try to get them on a hosting plan. $6.75/yr for a domain name isn't where the money is. $20/mo or whatever for hosting is another story. Certainly I think that putting a little checkmark box on their account's frontpage that says "Enable hosting by charging $xx.xx to my credit card" will make it more likely that they will upgrade than if they had to create an entirely new account from scratch. (Note that my userbase will be completely non-technical... as a matter of fact they will probably be morons ("What's the Interweb?"))

...But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

And I'm not talking about reseller hosting accounts, I'm talking about end user accounts. I signed up as a reseller of domain names with GoDaddy/Wild West Domains, and I plan on implementing their API directly into my website. A lot of good it would do to sell people domain names and have them manage their domain (DNS settings, whois contact information, etc) at godaddy's website, because they HOUND you with offers for extras like hosting, email, SSL certs etcetera etcetera (and oh wow, you don't have to make a brand new account just to get those features!). By having the user manage their domain name settings on godaddy's servers would be like referring them to the competition. That just doesn't fly with me.

Maybe you don't agree with all of this, but I'm pretty sure you at least understand where I'm coming from from a business point of view.

[Pap]

Oh, and to clarify... I have devised a script that will allow the end-user to securely modify their own DNS zone files (giving them a reseller account in WHM wouldn't allow them to edit their own zone files, anyway--just those of their own sub-users).

[SarcNBit]

Originally posted by Pap
I have devised a script that will allow the end-user to securely modify their own DNS zone files

I understand where you are coming from not wanting your domain name customers being inundated with ads for comptetitors web hosting.

Maybe what you need is something operating above cpanel and your DNS scripts (a billing package?) that can manage your accounts.

[rvskin]

Please delete my post if you think it is an ads. I just don't see any other ways that you can do without using RVskin. Check it out.

[myusername]

just clone a theme and give those users the theme you cloned. Edit the theme to have dns only and whatever else you want them to see. When they buy, put them on a real cpanel theme.

Oh, and rv skin works good for this too if you do not have the time to build your own.