[freeside] 1.2.3 released
ivan
ivan at 420.am
Sat Mar 4 21:24:59 PST 2000
On Fri, Mar 03, 2000 at 04:52:36PM -0600, Brian Wolfe wrote:
> 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.
Freeside's progressed a *long* way since it was a set of homegrown
scripts. The bulk of the development has been focused on the library
modules, which are several generations beyond a "homegrown script set".
The web interface (built on top of the library modules) is pretty crufty
and I hope to throw most of it out in favor of something better soon.
> 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 think you need to take a closer look at the package, especially the
service administration section.
Dialup accounts are simply a certain kind of service - if you don't want
to offer it, don't offer that sort of service.
> 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.
Again, while the license on Freeside gives you the right to fork the
package, I would encourage you to instead contribute to the current
package.
> FREESIDE: gimme info or some sign of life other than this release
> message or i'll be forced to do this.
You've waited, what, a day? two? Chill out.
There *will* be periods where my other obligations will cause me not to be
able to spend time on Freeside, sometimes for lots longer than a day or
two. I don't feel that provides adequate reason to fork the package -
it's considered *extremely* rude to fork a package against the wishes of
an active maintainer.
I think you need a refresher on open-source ownership customs - see
<http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading-4.html>.
> 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.)
You should probably get familiar with Perl OO programming if you want to
work on the "guts" of Freeside (as opposed to simply using the objects).
The `perltoot' manpage is an excellent start.
> 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
While I'm sure there's many ways in which Freeside could be made more
efficient, you should be using mod_perl (and Apache::DBI) for the best
performance, not CGI. The web demo, for instance, runs fine on a K6/200,
192MB and IDE disk.
>
> 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
> >
--
meow
_ivan
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