Hey Matojo.
I think you should invest in a Cpanel/WHM Linux server. Basically there are 2 control panels setup... The reseller admin gets to use a panel called WHM. You might want to look it up and try the demo out. It's really easy to use and helps with creating accounts for users.
Cpanel as I'm sure you heard of is pretty much a customer favourite these days. I'm sure if you offered Cpanel, many people would want to sign up.
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. Does the control panels provide any built in mechanism for configuring the security? If I create a new user account through the contrl panel (Helm, CPanel, Plesk etc), is the user automatically configured with appropriate security levels?
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Yes, WHM does this if you have a reseller account.
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2. Does the control panels have features to process billing (I am considering future plans of paid hosting)
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I think the newer WHM has some integretion for payments. I'm not 100%, since I've never experiences the billing side of it, however I've had people tell me it's integratable with a payment proccesor. Mabye someone can clear that up for you here.
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3. Do you have any suggestions which control panel I have to buy?
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WHM/Cpanel, most reseller hosting accounts offer it.
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4. Do I need SSL to use control panels? I saw a demo of Helm which asks for SSL based URLs.
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Cpanel and WHM, automatically will redirect you to a safe SSL url.
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5. Do I need firewalls? Is shared firewall a compromise on security ?
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If you have reseller hosting, the server manager would have firewalls already installed on the server.
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6. Which is the best data center I can go for ?
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Do some research on the forums, theres TONS of good places. Just look around for good reviews and prices.
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7. How many (small) sites I can host on a server? 100 ? 1000 ? 10000 ?
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That really depends.. what each customer is hosting.. and how much traffic they recieve. Usually I just added on customers, till I noticed a slow down. After that, unless it was someone abusing the server with emails etc.. I'd get a new reseller on another server, rather a 2nd account.
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8. Is there any products available in the market to offer 'Ad supported hosting' ?
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hmmm.. I'm sure there is since I've seen some ad hosting businesses create accounts, which automatically place ads on the top of any page. However, if your using google adsense, channels would help identify all sites.
Hope this helps you out a bit more. If you have more questions feel free to let us know.
All the best of luck.
