Wanted, Control Panel on the Cheap!

As the Web hosting control panel questions keep rolling in, I'll keep answering them. This latest question came to me after writing the three part series on control panels a few weeks ago for Lockergnome. I made a request for folks to send me any questions they might have about control panels, and they did just that. I received an E-mail from Sheldon about this subject just the other day.

Mitch, Thanks for your site. I am finding some good info there.

I founded (as a BBS in 1991), ran and sold a small ISP. I now have a single web server that I host a school and a church website on. Now a couple more non profits want to host with me too. I am using Windows Server 2k (because I know it best) and setting up things the hard way.

My former company uses Plesk but it is not cheap ($199 for 30 domains). In your research, have you found a functional, low cost or free control panel? I do not need to set up email or DNS, just site and FTP permissions on the web server. Doing it all manually I seem to forget some permission setting every time I do it! Now back to reading your site...

Now I do have to admit, I have yet to stumble across a free Windows-based control panel. If you happen to know of any, please let me know and I'll be sure to include it in a future article. I suggested to Sheldon that he read through my control panel round up articles to see if he liked any of my examples from there. There are more than a few Windows-based control panels listed. Success! He found something that worked out for him.

I did find your articles just minutes after I emailed you. InsPanel has a free version for 10 or less sites. It also limits a few other items. At $499 for the unlimited version, it is still a good deal. I am playing with this software some more, but it looks like I will be uninstalling it and reinstalling it to fix a goof I did during install. But their email support already answered a question, so that was impressive!

I did look at a virtual server setup, but I have free bandwidth as long as my former company stays in business. It is kind of nice to have a fiber cable to your home! So I take advantage of this and host some low cost sites just for spending money (so I can buy more computer hardware...).

I am surprised at the limitation of free or low cost Windows panel solutions. Microsoft makes the much of code available and if I was a programmer I would try and make my own. But I am a hardware guy and could not program my way out of a paper bag.

Another tough Web hosting question, now answered. Remember, if you have any Web hosting or Web development questions, feel free to shoot them my way! I'm always looking to help folks out when it comes to understanding all this Web site mumbo-jumbo. The thing to remember here is, never give up on looking for a better solution out there. Chances are if you think it should exist out there, then it probably does, and in more than one version.