Data Center Hub

I frequently am asked about what open source web hosting control panels are available for different platforms and purposes.

Here is a list of some I have found in my travels (in no particular order).

ISPConfig for Linux under BSD License

AlternC for Linux under GPL

GNU Hosting Helper for Linux under GPL

VHCS Virtual Hosting Control System

Web-CP is one of only a few CPs which support FreeBSD as well as Linux. While not a fast moving project, it seems directed by individuals who are seasoned professionals.

RavenCore is a relative newcomer but looks like a promising control panel for Linux based hosting.

ZPanel seems to support Microsoft® Windows® as well as Linux. Some of the features listed seem a bit odd such as “track where your clients while they’re logged in” - I am not sure why I need to know this as an owner of the control panel. Anyway, so far this is the only free (open) Windows CP I’ve found - though I don’t see the license terms on the site.

I saved the most frequently mentioned control panel for last. Webmin is the oldest project and most mature control panel for a Linux or FreeBSD server. While it is mature and configurable, it is designed more as a sysadmin helper tool than as a monolithic web hosting control panel. There is a commercially available CP based on webmin named CP+, it is offered by Comodo and is tightly integrated with their Trustix Linux distribution. CP Plus also supports FreeBSD with slightly less automated installation of programs.

Admittedly it would be hard to keep synchronized backups of 700G of email, but the story below should turn some heads (perhaps side-to-side), regarding the human nature of being a sysadmin.

According to theRegister, PlusNet has deleted hundreds of gigabytes of its customers’ email during a storage update. The blunder also left about half its 140,000 customers unable to send and receive new email until this morning.

In case you’re wondering; the Jesus Factor is reserved for those times when something breaks and you say “Jesus…” which is a good reason not to put every service on one server (or storage medium).
It could be worse; they could be trying to explain why the server crashed after someone knocked over their Slurpee into it while visiting the Data Center.

When I first came to Florida in 1972 I was told there weren’t any crocodiles here, only alligators. Perhaps that was true in Martin and Palm Beach Counties for 1972. Today, there is a rebound of crocs in Collier County. Take a look here: Crocodiles in Naples, FL.

In a recent post to the ISP-Wireless list someone asked about devices made and sold by highgainantennas.com - I clicked the link and took a look at the site and was amazed at how similar the name seems to another antenna company.

I wonder how long it will be before the Hy-Gain® Antenna Company takes note of the apparent registered trademark infringement of highgainantennas.com The name Hy-Gain is registered with the USPTO as a trademark first used in commerce in 1957 for the sale of antennas. I hope the new “high gain antennas” has invested more into their product’s research than their name.
Most people with some RF experience have heard of the rightful trademark
holder company, Hy-Gain is now owned by MFJ Enterprises- hence my confusion when I saw the products advertised at HighGainAntennas.com - even the font of their product logo looks similar to the Hy-Gain logo (the one depicted on devices for sale, not their web site logo).

When I asked on the list if anyone has some insight into the new user of this homonymous name, I received one reply to the list suggesting that I am simply “being mean and causing trouble” to a “nice guy”. I’m sure the guy who is usurping the name is nice enough and hard working. As a business person I believe he is coming up short, very short, about as short as someone starting a new router company and naming it “Cysco Systems”.

Hopefully MFJ will send this “nice guy” a cease and desist demand very soon as leaving this in place could lead to marketplace confusion. Such as: Did MFJ change the spelling of the Hy-Gain name to High Gain and start making WISP products to sell on this other web site?

I wonder where the FCC IDs are on these Part 15 devices offered for sale on the site? From what I understand the FCC implictly does not allow non-approved devices to be offered for sale or advertised for sale.
Am I simply way off base for noticing or caring to draw attention to this?

Perhaps I am too sensitive about these kind of things after I found a site under slbb.us that was a wholesale cut and paste copy of Skyline Broadband (a previous design, not the present one). We still had to take action against this or risk losing future enforcement. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

It’s about time to give up the excuses and actually start creating a web log of my own. My name is Bill Laakkonen. I am the founder of Im1 Web Hosting, now in our tenth year of service. Over at Im1 we have helped others run their own ‘blogs’ since before they were called blogs (among other things). We (Ryan Williams and I) started the world’s first hosting service dedicated to running the code created by slashdot, called slashhosting.com. The domain name incidentally was the first name ever registered in Tucow’s OpenSRS registry.

Slashcode is not the challenge that it used to be for installation and as a result, we don’t do much new stuff at slashhosting.com anymore. Just about any regular hosting account can easily run software such as WordPress with a simple 5 minute installation.

So here I am. Finally. Oh, by the way, the opinions and views expressed by me here are mine personally and do not represent my employer.