vDeck –A Complex Yet Simple to Use Control Panel

A good control panel is expected to handle various complex tasks on a regular basis, however the complexity of these tasks is supposed to be handled with ease. Functionality combined with simplicity is what makes a control panel effective. Without these key attributes the control panel is simply a glorified user interface with little to no value. One control panel that embodies these characteristics perfectly is vDeck. vDeck is a versatile control panel solution that brings together the best of both worlds; simplicity and functionality.

Marketing Your Website With vDeck

As the popularity of this control panel has continued to rise, many of its users are saying that it may replace cPanel as the most popular control panel within the next 5 years. While this may or may not be true, it certainly seems that it is just as capable as cPanel.  Unlike cPanel however, vDeck focuses equally on the marketing aspect of website management, as well as the administrative aspect. Users have access to a variety of analytical traffic tools that aid in their SEO efforts. vDeck also makes it simple to install third party social bookmarking and video posting applications that increase the popularity of your website.

A Solution for All Sizes

Although its competitor cPanel is known primarily as a solution for small businesses, vDeck is different in that it can accommodate the needs of virtually any size business, including large corporations.  vDeck is also an optimal solution for a variety of  server environments, including virtual, private, dedicated and shared hosting environments. Whether you own a small retail shop, or an online empire, vDeck can accommodate your needs. In fact, it’s multi-tiered administrative interface makes it easy to control multiple domains within a singular user-friendly interface. Users can log in and out of their website’s with ease, without every exiting the vDeck control panel.

vDeck’s Expandability

The power of vDeck is literally unlimited, as it is a fully expandable and customizable control panel.  You can add third party applications that enhance the productivity of your website in a variety of ways. You can even hire a programmer to create a program that is specifically designed to meet your needs, as the software is compatible with almost every programming language. vDecks expandability make it a solution that is capable of handling a plethora of complex tasks with ease. Users can create custom cron jobs that automatically handle daily work such as uploading content, posting to site blog’s, changing themes and any other administrative task you can imagine.

Learning to Use vDeck

Learnign to use vDeck is also extremely simple, as there is a wealth of documented informaiton on the software that can be accessed directly from the control panel. On top of the provided information, users can find video tutorials online, and can chat with other vDeck users in the vDeck help forums. With all of the resources available for vDeck, the learning curve for vDeck is nearly non-existent. In fact, many users are able to use the software without ever reading a single tutorial.

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Feb 08, 2010 : Control Panels No responses yet

DirectAdmin: A Simpler Solution?

DirectAdmin has gained a lot of popularity in the recent years due to it’s simplicity. In fact, many users say it is the easiest control panel to use, especially when compared to even more popular solutions such as Plesk and cPanel. Although it is not as feature-packed as cPanel, it contains all of the basic functions needed to run your website and maintain your server. Even with the few features that it lacks, it is seen as one of the best solutions for novice webmasters because of it’s exceptionally simple navigational interface. Most people that use DirectAdmin have VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server). With VPS hosting the webmaster has access to a server that has capabilities that are similar to a dedicated server, yet it is still shared with other webmasters. Therefore VPS hosting is often viewed as a middle ground between dedicated and shared hosting. Many people use a combination of VPS hosting and DirectAdmin because it gives them the best of both world’s – dedicated and shared hosting.

Key Features

DirectAdmin is renowned as one of the simplest control panels to use, however this simplicity does not sacrifice it’s functionality. Aside from easy navigation, it also offers stability, speed and efficiency. DirectAdmin’s reliability stems from it’s ability to automatically recover from errors that cause system crashes. Perhaps most impressive is that even with all of these benefits, DirectAdmin is still half the price of cPanel and other similar control panels!

DirectAdmin also supports in-depth user administration. The webmaster has the ability to setup and administrate the accounts of new administrators/users and even has the rights to delegate server space to resellers. DirectAdmin administrators can even setup multiple packages for resellers that follow a predesignated set of rules. Webmasters can also control IP addresses by using the IP menu that is included in the control panel.

Reselling Benefits

DirectAdmin also serves many benefits to the reseller as well.  Resellers have the power to create, modify or delete accounts.  Similar to a website administrator, the reseller can select from predefined hosting packages and distribute them to clients.  They can also view the resource usages of their clients to monitor bandwidth and storage.  DirectAdmin allows resellers to interact with clients via a built-in support ticket system.  It also includes a feature that enables the creation of personalized name servers for the benefit of end-users.

Account Creation in DirectAdmin

Domain owners can also use the administrative interface of DirectAdmin to set up and manage multiple POP3 email accounts. You can also set up FTP accounts and access a DNS menu that provides complete control. Domain owners can also view website statistics through DirectAdmin, to improve their traffic techniques. You’ll also have access to tools that enhance your site designing abilities and an easy backup utility that let’s you backup your entire site with a few clicks.

In the end, DirectAdmin is a worthy opponent to cPanel and Plesk, in fact it is a superior solution for those using the VPS hosting environment.

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Jan 26, 2010 : Control Panels No responses yet

4 Most Influential Control Panels

A good control panel can greatly increase the productivity of your online business. Control panels give webmasters control over all of the administrative functions that are crucial in every day server management. Without an easy-to-use, yet effective control panel, every webmaster would need a degree in internet technology just to manage their server effectively! Of course nay control panel would be better than not having one at all, however if you are serious about your online business, then you’ll want the very best. Below are 4 control panels that simply cannot be ignored.

cPanel

The first name that comes to mind when someone says “control panel” is cPanel.  Cpanel is by far the  most widely used control panel around. The simplicity of cpanel, combined with it’s abundance of expandable features make it an award winning software that has all but cornered it’s market. The greatest benefit involved with cPanel often arises from the popularity of the control panel itself. Since there are so many fellow cPanel users, there is a plethora of user tutorials available online, including video tutorials. There are also community forums full of expert cPanel users willing to help the novice user learn their way around the software. With all of the information available regarding cPanel, it is easy to resolve any issues of confusion which may arise during the learning process.

Plesk

Next on the list of consideration is Plesk. In fact, there are a few areas that Plesk excels in when compared to cPanel, such as clustering support. If you use cloud or clustered hosting, then Plesk would definitely be a more suitable option for you. Plesk also includes a more comprehensive site builder than cPanel.  Of course, with these added benefits comes a slightly steeper learning curve. If you are a novice webmaster then Plesk may not be your best option, however if you are somewhat familiar with internet technology then you shouldn’t have a problem learning the ins and outs of Plesk within a few short hours.

DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin is probably the simplest control panel to master, and it also uses the least amount of resources on your computer. It may have less features than the two control panels listed above, but since the developers have time to focus solely on a few features, it consequentially has less bugs and is more stable than cPanel.  DirectAdmin is generally used by hosts on a budget, because of it’s low cost and stability.

Hsphere

At one point Hsphere was at the top of the control panel market, offering features that were exclusive to the software. However, as time passed the other control panels caught up and have long since surpassed Hsphere in both functionality and user-friendliness. In fact, Hsphere is the most difficult control panel to use. In fact the only reason why it made the list is because of the contributions it made towards the control panel market early on.  Even though Hsphere is a very capable control panel, it should not be used by novice users, and even moderately advanced webmasters will experience somewhat of a learning curve with this software.

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Dec 28, 2009 : Control Panels No responses yet

Mint Panel Control Panel Overview

Mint Panel is one of the most unique control panels on the market.  Not only does it offer the ability to automate the management of web servers, but FTP, voice and game servers as well.  Notably more affordable than competing products, the software bundles reseller and billing support to make it a complete automated server management solution.

Centralized Server Management

Mint Panel makes it simple to managed all installed servers from a single console.  Known as the Master Server, this centralized facility allows users of all access to levels to login and manage their respective environments.  This approach helps save precious system restores while enabling administrators to be more productive at the same time.

Extensive User Management

Mint Panel has five levels of login, each with its own unique roles and responsibilities that are defined by the administrator in the above tier.

Administrator – The administrator has the highest level of access, able to easily assign access to all other servers and enable those users to handle their respective management tasks.  Mint Panel also allows administrators to efficiently manage their entire network infrastructure, thus dramatically reducing the probability of system failures.

Reseller – The reseller has the same level of access as the administrator with the exception of being able to manage the master server and infrastructure.  This means the reseller has an extensive level of control over web, FTP, voice and game servers.

Account Holder – The third level of access gives account holders the ability to manage web, voice and game servers as well as create four fourth tier users to manage specific services based on the privileges provided to them.

User – The user represents a login level that is created by the administrator or account holder.  These users are usually assigned to specific servers to perform administrative tasks.

Mail User – The fifth level allows a user to login in an access their own provide area for managing passwords, spam filtering and anti-virus configurations.

Integrated Billing System

Mint Panel comes equipped with a complete billing system.  This fully featured system allows administrators and resellers to create custom invoices, automatically suspend services for defaulted payments, and set up recurring payments for customers.  It also supports multiple gateways with support for custom gateways to be added in the near future.  Perhaps the greatest thing about the Mint Panel billing system is that is lets you bill clients how you want.  You have the option to go with the traditional recurring monthly invoice, the increasingly popular pay-as-you-go model, or both.  For example, you can charge customers $10 a month for a hosting plan or charge them based on factors such as total bandwidth, CPU or memory usage by the unit multiplier of your choosing.  The Mint Panel billing system is completely customizable so you have a tremendous amount of flexibility.

Conclusion

Mint Panel is an all-one-control panel that can be useful in a wide range of environments.  Aside from the qualities mentioned here, it also offers the secure and scalable platform needed to excel in the hosting business.  Expect to hear more about this control panel as it continues to make its rounds and increase in popularity.

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Nov 02, 2009 : Control Panels One response so far

cPanel Rolls out RC Version of Windows Control Panel

Last month, web hosting automation software provider cPanel, launched an RC (release candidate) version control panel product to support the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 platform.  Known as Enkompass, the software is a step away from the company’s traditional panels based on Linux, FreeBSD and other Unix-like operating systems.  cPanel is currently working with Microsoft to accommodate customers who prefer a wider range of platforms offering the power of IIS 7 and Windows Server 2008.

In a recent statement, J. Nick Koston, Chief Executive Officer at cPanel, spoke of Microsoft’s dedication and involvement in the web hosting industry over the last few years.  He said that the cPanel Windows development believes IIS 7 is a flexible, scalable, high performance web server that offers the improved security the industry will rapidly adopt.  According to Koston, Windows’ modern architecture and extensive support for legacy products was the major selling point that prompted cPanel to expand its offerings.

Boasting a decade of experience in the field of automation software, the cPanel development team built the Enkompass panel from the ground up, designing the application in native Microsoft technologies to ensure the best in performance and flexibility.  Koston noted that the product was specifically designed to be run in the distributed server environment, allowing one or more Enkompass servers to manage a multitude of servers over a Windows domain.  This enables simplified automation and administration of a server farm or an entire data center facility.

To no surprise, the Enkompass user interface is very reminiscent of cPanel and WHM designed for the Linux platform.  This familiarity was emphasized to help users and end customers better understand the software without having to rediscover the functions needed to maintain their daily operations.   In fact, Enkompass offers many of the same features found in the cPanel and WHM environment, including tools and options designed for administrators and resellers.  It is worth mentioning that cPanel has removed several unnecessary Windows components and included a few Windows-only features as well.  Enkompass supports both the MailEnable and SmarterMail email programs.  To support the new panel, SmarterTools developed a new lite version of the mail program that supports unlimited domains and is only compatible with Enkompass.  In addition, cPanel’s Windows control panel supports Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 as well as MySQL 5.

cPanel has also made security a priority for its Windows control panel.  This is done by using AD (Active Directory), which makes sure user data and reseller privileges are stored in a secure manner.  In addition, the reseller platform has received notable enhancements, now boasting multi-level reselling capabilities that essentially allows resellers to service other resellers.

The people at cPanel revealed that the Enkompass control panel is to be installed on a single Windows server and then extends to provision accounts across multiple web, mail, FTP and database servers, thus allowing hosting providers to easily add new capacity by incorporating additional servers as their needs increase.

The Enkompass control panel is currently available in a test version.  This license is valid for 45 days and will expire thereafter or when the product becomes available for sale.

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Oct 08, 2009 : Control Panels No responses yet