At 07:19 PM 2/14/00 -0500, you wrote:
Jeff,
You can bypass that and get RPMS already built. There are several
different RADIUS servers for linux that will build on the RAQ units. I've
done quite a few.
The advantage of what the consultant did was he gave us a complete install, PHP, Radius, MySQL, running on the box. He did all the work. I think I'd like seeing such an RPM, myself. My statement about selling it for a good deal less than $1500 was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. I just wanted to point out that having an "expert" install a complete open-source solution seemed both cheaper and "better" than buying a retail solution.
What is good about RadiusX is that is intergrates with the
Microsoft SQL billing backend that the Emerald billing software uses. This
is a VERY complete, VERY useful, and VERY well written accounting and
billing program. With LDAP intergration, it is possible to create an
account on the SQL server, have it replicated to an LDAP server and never
have to touch the Linux server to create it. Also, if the user does not
pay his bill, his account is shut off automatically.
Interesting point...Last year I discussed this on one of the Internet lists. We were terminating people who were late. Everyone came down against me. It seems that a large number of ISPs feel that one major difference between the "big guy" ISPs and the little people like us is that we can be more flexible and work with people on payments. At the time we loosened up our late-payment policies quite a bit.
I'm still in the throes of a startup, and my cash flow, while almost adequate <smile> isn't always smooth. So I enjoy a more flexible policy myself <smile, again>.
I am greatly simplifying it, but for users of the Emerald billing package, having RadiusX available to run on the Linux platform instead of IEA's RadiusNT on NT removes one more dependence on a Microsoft product.
Obviously it works for you. But... while you're saying that using RadiusX with Emerald removes a dependency on a Microsoft product, it seems to me that depending on another package rather than Emerald could remove your dependencies even further <grin>.
Of course you've decided to go with Emerald, and obviously, for you, that's fine. And you've decided to go with RadiusX. For you, again, that's fine.
Me, I'm a tool user. So far I've found open-source tools to be superior in terms of my needs. Your mileage, of course, may very well vary.
Jeff -- Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>