Reseller Packages.. Tedious?

[Diatone]

Hello.

I am wondering if there is a way that I can create a reseller package. Currently, when I get a reseller order, I am having to setup an account, with no real domain name, r1025 for example, with like 10 megs of space and 100megs of transfer. Even when the plan comes with 1GB of space and 15GB's of transfer.. Then I have to go and add reseller privleges. Then I have to edit reseller privleges, click all the check boxes, and type in how much bandwidth and space this reseller account should be allowed to use. (Because if when I created a regular account, I couldn't specify that they could use 1Gb of space and 15GB of transfer, or else when I added reseller privleges, and specifyed the space and bandwidth again, they would have a total of 2GB's of space and 30GB's of transfer) So this way, when I setup and account, not only does it take forever, the reseller is confused that they have to add there own main account. Then they have to e-mail me, so I can setup there nameservers on one of the accounts that they add, instead of me just being able to do it all at once.. Does anyone see what I mean? For people that are getting around 5-10 reseller signups a day. This is ridiculous. If I can't do it, how do I make a feature request for some sort of 'Add reseller account' feature?

Thanks.

 

[Brian Farkas]

Feature requests may be made from: http://web.cpanel.net/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?bug_severity=enhancement

I don't believe this is a current feature.

 

[Diatone]

Made a request along time ago.. Any chance of seeing this implemented nick? Please?

 

[checksoft]

No doubt, an interface is needed that will greatly ease the installation of resellers who of course must also be provisioned by CPanel so they can customize their own panels as well. I'd call it the &One Button Solution.& Hsphere and Sphera and others have done this. No?

 

[rbro]

Yes! We are in desperate need of this functionality. We need to be able to automate resource based reseller account creation, or at least make it a heck of a lot easier. Any way to define a reseller account as just another package?

 

[matts]

I agree with Diatone and everyone else...it's a pain in the butt.. It would also be nice to only allow a reseller to have so main IPs rather then just the main one or all (did I miss this somewhere?).

Diatone-or anyone else- have you figured out an easier way to setup a reseller? Thanks.

 

[Diatone]

Nope, I'm still setting them up the same way as I have this whole time. I don't know if Nick is going to change this though, there have been tickets submitted, no action for quite some time. Good idea about the IP's to. That would also be nice.

 

[matts]

I talked to Nick and it doesn't seem like he can or will do it

 

[Diatone]

don't see why he couldn't... what did he say?

 

[checksoft]

Here's a simple solution.

1. Pre-create reseller accounts, i.e., Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 3, etc.

2. When a reseller order comes in, click the button for whatever reseller plan he or she wants.

3. Even better, have the option to automatically provision the account. That is, they sign up and the reseller account is automatically created. Then we'd just concern ourselves with the important things like support, billing and marketing.

How close is Cpanel to this? Will this happen?

 

[ukhost]

Hi,

This is a good question, why can WHM/CPanel be setup so that like we can create reseller packages like we can now for normal hosting clients?

We create Reseller Plan 1, Reseller Plan 2, etc with all the privilages set to what we wish. Then when a client orders a reseller plan we can add them in the same way we do the normal hosting account!

This would allow for us to have our own billing solution that could link into WHM/CPanel and automatically create the reseller accounts just like we can for normal hosting accounts and leave us to do other jobs like support, billing, marketing, etc as checksoft has said!

This would also enable us to display the package name for resellers in there own cpanel, for example:

Server: server1.serversrus.com
Plan: Reseller Plan 1

Then list the Bandwidth, Disk Space, etc allocated to the overall reseller plan.

Kind Regards,

Neil

 

[roman]

The would be IDEAL and PERFECT... Plans for Resellers And allow them to be added, suspended, unsuspended, cancelled from command line and remote...

 

[2dollarweb]

In full agreement.. And working on a solution

I am in full agreement with you guys.. and have been trying to automate the process myself... If i can find the best way to plug into the scripts, and still maintain security, Then i will probabbly offer this as a plugin to WHM, maybe even a WHM Theme with it as an added command...


Then there is on other thing that needs worked on... Account Termination... Removing accounts one by one is insanity if you have someone with anything over 25 accounts, why they havent figured this out yet I do not know

 

[Diatone]

Well look how long ago I posted it - 02-03-02 20:20:36 - I hope something is done about this eventually. Along with the terminating of accounts thing. If more people submit a feature request, I think the more likely it is to get done. *hint hint*

 

[Iain Shortreed]

this feature would be really good! I havent tried to setup resellers yet but when my hosting company launches it would be a good promotional offer for some of my *richer* friends.

I dont think it would be that hard, shouldn't it be able to be created somewhat like the automated user signup forms can be? (very simple to do, just a little work).

 

[ThunderHostingDotCom]

[quote:333bb71a26][i:333bb71a26]Originally posted by Diatone[/i:333bb71a26]

Well look how long ago I posted it - 02-03-02 20:20:36 - I hope something is done about this eventually. Along with the terminating of accounts thing. If more people submit a feature request, I think the more likely it is to get done. *hint hint*[/quote:333bb71a26]

Well I just got a server and these 2 topic seem to be some of the biggest complaints/suggestions in here. I would have to agree. I will also post a feature request for these 2 requests. I am getting a little worried that this request has gone this long with out being implimented. What does the $65 a month go to?

 

[twhiting9275]

Your money doesn't EVER guarantee your ideas will be 100% implemented in ANY faction of life. That is solely up to the program designer him(or her) self to decide.

While you (and maybe a few other people) think this is a good, maybe GREAT idea, there are a variety of other reasons why this can't be implemented, or hasn't been yet.

Firstly, time:
Whether you believe it or not, the people behind cPanel actually have lives. Running a business such as this is an incredible drain on people, because you have to support your product to thousands that use it, create new product, monitor forums, beta test product, AND deal with your own personal life..

Secondly , feasability:
Can it actually BE done? what you don't realize is that many of your 'features& come from the minds of non-coders, and SPEAKING as a coder myself, I know for a FACT that 99% of what people WANT coded into something just can NOT be done without a great deal of restructuring, work, and the like, and most of the time it's just not worth that.

Thirdly, priority:
What comes first? New features or bug fixes? Sorry, but ANY respectable programmer will tell you that bug fixes are MUCH more importat than new features. Keeping up with the current 3rd party apps, etc is just as important as bug fixes.. So, new features, welll, they go down to pretty much last, or should.



As far as where does your money go? Your clients use and appreciate Cpanel/WHM I'm sure. Yeah, they have to go out of their way a little to create this or that package. Yeah they have to do things a bit differently, but yano, your $65-$100/month goes a short way compared to what is needed to be done. Consider that the resellers don't actually PAY that $65 back to Nick, they pay a portion of that, depending on their licenses and whatnot.

All in all, CPanel is one HELL of a deal for the price paid for it. Customers appreciate and can use it easily, it makes ANY system admin's job easier, and it's an all around good thing.. It's NOT meant as the do everything for me client that sits back and lets you make $$$ while it does the work, it simply is meant as something that helps you run and administrate your server, that's all.

 

[ozzi4648]

[quote:abee17bfc6][i:abee17bfc6]Originally posted by Diatone[/i:abee17bfc6]

Hello.

I am wondering if there is a way that I can create a reseller package. Currently, when I get a reseller order, I am having to setup an account, with no real domain name, r1025 for example, with like 10 megs of space and 100megs of transfer. Even when the plan comes with 1GB of space and 15GB's of transfer.. Then I have to go and add reseller privleges. Then I have to edit reseller privleges, click all the check boxes, and type in how much bandwidth and space this reseller account should be allowed to use. (Because if when I created a regular account, I couldn't specify that they could use 1Gb of space and 15GB of transfer, or else when I added reseller privleges, and specifyed the space and bandwidth again, they would have a total of 2GB's of space and 30GB's of transfer) So this way, when I setup and account, not only does it take forever, the reseller is confused that they have to add there own main account. Then they have to e-mail me, so I can setup there nameservers on one of the accounts that they add, instead of me just being able to do it all at once.. Does anyone see what I mean? For people that are getting around 5-10 reseller signups a day. This is ridiculous. If I can't do it, how do I make a feature request for some sort of 'Add reseller account' feature?

Thanks.[/quote:abee17bfc6]

Yep this is pretty crazy. You didnt mention anything about the main account after the resellers account and privs have been set.
What did you do with the main account? Delete it, suspend it, leave it, modify it with less disk space and bwidth with the hope that the reseller doesnt get smart and log into it? If you dont do something with it then the reseller could log in on port 2082. It seems like one could very well just terminate the main account after its been created. What you will find is that the reseller account will still exist but it there will be no evidence of whos who when you list all accounts. This is not well thought out at all. What did you guys do, just leave main? It seems to be a useless account and taking up disk space unnecessarily space after the reseller has his account and setup his own site.

 

[Diatone]

Umm, I thought things out fine. Alot of people do it this way..

The accounts stay there, they are administration accounts, used purely for administering there accounts. The accounts they add never 'get lost'. They also don't take up any space really. Maybe a MB at most each... So... Yea....

 

[ozzi4648]

Not sure what you mean by adminstration account. The only thing that they could possibily do that affects their reseller account would be changing passwords. I went a step further. After the users reseller account gets created i downgrade the main account to have nothing set then i change the theme to something i created called &CHANGEPW&. Now if the reseller tries to log into the main account on port 2082 they get a nice pw theme that allows them to change the pw to their reseller account. Since changing the pw on a main account also affects the reseller account this works great. This stops them from accessing an account that is literally a dead account at the same time offers our users the opportunity to change their passwords.

Another thing you could do is not offer a change password theme. You would just hack a theme and say something like this account is not active or inactive or something.

:p