Virtual users instead of webX_username...

[rykoala]

I have a number of dedicated server clients who have ISPConfig. I was turned on to it a couple of years ago by an article online. For the most part, it works very well!

My biggest beef is that it does things the *old* way. Why prefix everything web webX_? Postfix, Dovecot, MySQL and ProFTPd all support it, even if they have to be custom compiled for authentication via MySQL.

I would use ISPConfig in a production environment where I have my hosting clients if I didn't have to prefix everything with webX_. I know that "web" is just the default and can be changed. But that's not the point. I shouldn't have to tell bob@bob.com that his username has to be web5_bob. He should be able to log in as bob@bob.com, and bob@robert.com should be able to log in as bob@robert.com not web8_bob.

Are future versions of ISPConfig expected to use this functionality?

I read the ISPConfig 3 feature request sticky post, and I didn't see this listed. I did see some *very* impressive features listed and I would be interested in deploying it if it were to use virtual users instead of Unix users for everything.

Thanks for your time.

PS- Obviously there'd have to be at least one Unix user per account, and I understand that. I am VERY familiar with cPanel and (sadly) Plesk and while I think that they both have merits, they are both lacking in many ways. cPanel is good but inflexible in many ways, and don't even get me started on Plesk!

[falko]

Originally Posted by rykoala

Are future versions of ISPConfig expected to use this functionality?

Yes, v3 will use virtual users. The current version uses system users which are not allowed to have an @ sign in the usernames.

[rykoala]

Falko, thank you for answering my question. I genuinely appreciate it. I know Linux users can't have an @. Back when I first started doing web hosting, NOBODY was using virtual users. *EVERY* user was a Linux user. I am SO HAPPY to see that ISPConfig is updating in this way.

I would say that this is a giant leap!

Also I want to thank you for the many howto's you have on this site. They've helped me learn *immensely* since I first started reading them.

Take care!