[freeside] 1.2.3 released

[Brian Wolfe]

	Well, i'm still waiting for a response from the freeside people themselves. I do know that the thing needs a LOT of work. 8-P Right now it feels like a homegrown script set with only a few small account features in it.

	I wonder if there is a way to add in "modules" for adding support for various things, like shell server types, and removing modules that you don't necessarily need, like dialup accounts.

	I'm going to hack the import script this weekend to work with the debian system and keep tabs on the system accounts. Ill also be starting a new mailing list myself for all of this next weekend if I don't get a response from the freeside folks in preparation of forking.


	FREESIDE: gimme info or some sign of life other than this release message or i'll be forced to do this. it's a decent start and can probably be morphed a bit better. I'm not so certain that your "objectifying" of the code into opbjects is all that good. (probably because i haven't used objects extensivly.) But at this point compilation and load times are abysmal for cgi. >1 secon dloads on a dual pIII 450 with 512MB of ram and LVM stripe to 4 7200 rpm uwscsi disks? cmon... gotta be bloat. 8-P

	Brian
	TerraBox.com

On Fri, Mar 03, 2000 at 01:13:20PM -0600, Tim Jung wrote:
> 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
>