Re: loginnames

Dale E. Reed Jr. ( (no email) )
Mon, 19 May 1997 15:12:57 -0700

Josh Hillman wrote:
>
> I was deleting a bunch of old emailboxes for accounts which are no longer
> active and the the thought occurred to me that if a new user signs up and
> requests a username (loginname) that a now-inactive user previously used,
> the new user cannot have that login (evethough it's inactive).
>
> Would there be any potential problems if Emerald were to have the ability
> to allow a new user to use a username that is currently attached to an
> INactive service? It would be similar to deleting the service (freeing that username).
> When people cancel service (or haven't made a payment in quite sometime),
> I just simply mark their MBR and any services inactive. I keep the
> accounts in case our accountants have any billing/service questions
> somewhere down the road.

Typically accounts are kept for the duration. We have thought about
this option, but it would include re-writing the check routines and
modifying the portion where you re-activate the account (if you do).
For example, what is someone wanted an account paused for the summer,
or a month, or whatever, and in that time, someone "stole" that login.
They would get the user's mail, and the user would be pretty upset to
find out they have a different login now...

We typically hold accounts for up to 30 days past due. This allows them
to re-new their account without having to have a new accuont created.

The phone company typically keeps a phone number in-active for a while
to "clean it up". This is a good practice in user names, for things
like email and such.

-- Dale E. Reed Jr.  (daler@iea.com)_________________________________________________________________       IEA Software, Inc.      |  RadiusNT, Emerald, and NT FAQs Internet Solutions for Today  |    http://www.emerald.iea.com