Re: WAS ISP Billing Programs Blooming

Michael Whisenant ( mwhisen@airnet.net )
Tue, 24 Jun 1997 08:32:47 -0500

Yes, But as I understand it Dale OWNS Radius NT and as such it is a
commercial product that is included in the pricing of Emerald. He could
just as well charge the same pricing for RADIUS NT without Emerald for
those opting to use another billing package. Yes Emerald is a bit
pricy, but look at all of it's features. Dale has worked on a
tremendous product. The only drawback as I see it is they (IEA
Software) need to hire additional support staff and support the product
better. I doubt Dale can continue the pace he has been working and
support the growing number of users that are flooding to use NT as a
solution.

I have requested three times to add additional users, which relates to
more cash flow to IEA, and still have not gotten a response. Dale does
answer almost 1/3 of the postings to this list, and has done a great
job. With his new child and yes he too has a life, I question his
ability to be the sole person to support this product. I guess as in
any business he is facing the 'chicken and egg' problem. Do I add staff
which costs money to grow further, or do I try and tackle it myself.

I have used Emerald/RadiusNT for over a year. It is a great and
tremendous product. I have reviewed the software that you mention, but
find Emerald is still ahead of the pack. For my money, I have chosen
Emerald.

Danny Sinang wrote:
>
> Well, NTPaymaster ( http://www.imagen.net ) is a $670 ( there is a special
> beta price ) billing software that could import Radius log files and
> generate invoices. They claim to have a web interface.
>
> Since I haven't been able to make Emerald work ( since nobody has answered
> my plea for help ), I don't know if the two are comparable.
>
> ISP Billing ( http://www.isp-billing.com ) is REALLY feature packed and
> free for 150 users or less. It can get its input from Radius, but it
> requires you to set up some perl script to email your bills.
>
> ISP Manager ( http://www.omegasoftware.com ) is a low priced ( $500 )
> billing software with great reporting capabilities and a nice interface.
> Its reports ( Crystal Reports based .rpt ) can be posted on the web thru
> the use of Crystal Report's web engine. The only drawback I see is that ISP
> Manager only interfaces with NT RAS. If you're into RAS, you'll find its
> integration really nice. You can create users with the billing software
> itself. I will ask them if they've a Radius version available.
>
> GreenSoft's software is nice, but it's steeply priced.
>
> Let me know which one you'll pick.
>
> - Danny Sinang
> ----------
> > From: BA <ba@interconnect.net>
> > To: ntisp@emerald.iea.com
> > Subject: WAS ISP Billing Programs Blooming
> > Date: Tuesday, June 24, 1997 9:27 AM
> >
> > Ok we are fixing to take the plunge into a ISP billing package and we
> > currently have running a stripped version radiusNT meaning it just has
> > usernames and passwords in an access db
> >
> > We were thinking emerald for sure (the price is very high)...however,
> this
> > thread got me wondering.......what are the choices out there that
> integrate
> > into RadiusNT and what is everyone else using?
> >
> > How is the support and price for the different solution?
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
> > NTISP Mailing List listserver@emerald.iea.com
> >
>
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