[freeside] 1.2.3 released

[Tim Jung]

Well I was thinking the same thing since the web site doesn't show anything
new since March of 1999 and until recently (today?) the web archive stopped
at sometime last fall.

We currently use a home grown accounting (not billing) package, and the
consultant we had doing it has basically quit on us, he doesn't have time to
make the changes we want any more. The main problem we have with our current
package is that it is Windows only. It is written in Clarion and thus the
data files are somewhat proprietary and there is almost no change that
TopSpeed/Clarion will ever make a Linux version of their database RAD
program, so we are looking at our options. We have looked at a lot of the
Linux "billing packages" and most of them we would have give up some
features that we have in order to switch. Most of them are really expensive,
more so than their Window 98/NT counterparts. In fact because the Linux
stuff is so expensive and lagging so far behind their Windows counterparts
we are even thinking about switching to a commercial Windows ISP Billing
Package. The main problem with this is that we don't have any NT servers at
all to run it on, so we will have to buy another server to run the billing
on.

BillMax for Linux:
This package isn't too bad especially when 90% of the source code is given
to you when you purchase it. The database that it uses is MySQL. They do
provide a few sample generic Unix scripts for account setup on multiple
machines but they aren't very good and they don't include any default
scripts for Red Hat 6.1 default install or basically any Linux distribution
at all. They don't have a signup server, or help desk, no customer self
maintenance, no automatic domain registration support, no LDAP support, no
IP tracking for users spaming, payments aren't applied to specific invoices,
no salesmen commissions or commission reports, and no real virtual ISP or
virtual web hosts options where they resell your services and manage their
own customers. The biggest plus about this package, besides the source code,
is they are working to have a full blown accounting package as part of the
deal over the next year or so, which will be a great feature to have.
0 - 1000 accounts              $ 5000
1001 - 5000 accounts       $ 7500
5001 - 10000 accounts     $10000


Exent RBS for Linux:
This is one of the more expensive Linux billing packages I have seen, if not
the most expensive by the time you add on more features. It uses Oracle 8i,
and soon PostgreSQL for its database. The other problem I ran into is that
they are based in Israel so you have to call at like 4-6am Central Time to
get someone on the phone, and their English and understanding of Linux isn't
very good. They didn't have any scripts for Red Hat 6.1 to auto setup
accounts on a completely default install, let alone any other Linux
distribution. They don't have a help desk/knowledge base, IP tracking for
users spaming, or domain registration options, nor do they plan to offer
these options. It does have its own built-in RADIUS, or maybe I should say
has tight hooks to its own RADIUS package.
0-1000 accounts                $3995        (2 agents/users, 2 Dealers, 100
Prepaid cards)
1000 additional accounts  $1495
Additional Agent                  $1495
10 Dealers                           $2495
10,000 Pre-Paid Cards     $3795


Regulus:
This is billing package is pretty reasonable for the costs. It is a little
different in how it works since it uses I am guessing SNMP to monitor the
terminal servers and enforce the billing options or has links to RADIUS
real-time to do it. One of the things I didn't like is there isn't a way to
put an account on vacation hold, you don't have to do anything since it
won't charge an account that isn't used that month. I don't like that
"feature" at all. It does not have salesmen with commission reports,
customer referral credits, help desk with time tracking, marketing tracking,
personal security information to verify user when they are calling support,
signup server, a way for customers to add new services themselves or delete
them, billing for web traffic, billing for IP traffic for co-locations,
billing for traffic from RADIUS, no LDAP support, automatic domain
registration. The documentation isn't very good either. If they would get
better docs, change the way it does accounting (not billing none active
accounts), and add a few of the above features especially a help desk this
would be a good value.
up to  9 lines         FREE
up to 16 lines        $560
up to 24 lines        $790
up to 32 lines        $990
up to 48 lines        $1430
up to 96 lines        $2660
above 96 lines      $3450


HurlNet ISP Flex:
This is by far the most expensive Linux billing package out the door, since
the cheapest price to get started is $10,000. This billing package is
completely Java and Perl based. It uses MySQL for the database engine. They
are talking about possibly in the next version when you buy the package you
get a copy of the source code. Specifically the person I talked with said
the 2.5 release in May would be "OpenSource". I have been talking with a lot
of vendors lately who have said that, but it wasn't what they really meant,
as I doubt they are going to give away the source code and let you fork it
or do whatever you want with the source which is what OpenSource is all
about.  It does not have automatic domain registration, can't track IP
ownership (to track users spaming etc), no web traffic billing, no IP
traffic billing, no disk usage billing, prepaid cards can only be money
(they can't be 10 hour cards etc directly). They are also looking to add a
full accounting package option to their program since they merged with
another company that has that type of software recently. They do have the
signup server, customer self management, help desk/knowledge base, and
sample scripts for auto setup, as well as the virtual ISP, and salesmen/user
commissions etc.
0-5000 accounts                $10,000


I would love to see Freeside be able to support most of these options, or at
least have tight links/hooks into other GNU/GPL packages to make it happen,
like Help Desk/Knowledge Base, Automatic Domain Registration, Virtual
ISP/Reseller stuff, export of information to an accounting package or build
an accounting package into Freeside, more credit card/payment support for
auto-charging like CyberCash/Authorize.net/paybycheck.net/ICVerify for Unix
and ACH support. The OpenSRS domain registration client is GPL and written
in Perl so it shouldn't be to hard to link in or puts hooks to it. We do
consulting for TUCOWS and are working with them on the OpenSRS domain
registrar stuff.

Any thoughts or comments?

Tim Jung
System Admin
Internet Gateway Inc.
tjung at igateway.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Wolfe" <ahzz at terrabox.com>
To: <ivan-freeside at sisd.com>
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2000 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: [freeside] 1.2.3 released


> I want to add some functionality to freesied. I want to be able to have
multiple shell servers where a shell accounts is NOT global. i.e. it can be
on machine-a but not on machine-b, and account 2 can be on machine-b but not
on machine-a. acount 3 can be on machines a and b.
> Also, is there any prefered method for haing colocated machines.
> how do I add year long accounts to freeside if i were to start it's biling
cycle as of marc 15th?( as in ones that aren't due for several months) Will
I have to wait until that point to do it or what?
> also, is there any chance of being able to "stagger" billing cycles? 1/2
of the users on the 1st and the other half on the 15th?
>
> as you can see i'm very interested in getting ahold of a lot more than
freeside can handle right now. I'm also VERY interested in getting into the
development and pacakging this for Debian.
>
> Is it normal for the freeside users list to be so quiet? I haven't seen
anything since I signed up until your email here. I was allmost ready to
take the entire package and either fork it or take it over.
>
> Brian Wolfe