Re-Seller Hosting Questions and Input

I have recently dived into the web hosting thing. I started with a simple HostGator shared account, I had my problems and went to another host. Now I'm looking into setting up a re-seller account and found HostGator again. I'm thinking of "forgive and forget" and sign back up to HostGator. My main choice for this was there prices and what they offer for such a small price.

For anyone who has done any kind of buiss. "sounds to good to be true" is usually right. So I'm asking anyone who has a re-seller aco**** with HostGator to please give me some feedback on your expereince and how your first re-selling hosting went.

I do have a couple of questions.

1.) HostGator does include web hosting templates, are these cheaply made templates?

2.) I don't quite understand the paypal merchant account. They just give you one and set it up for you?

3.) Will HostGator need my credit card. (I use paypal because I trust them as I make transactions online) If possible, could I pay all fees with my current paypal account and then later pay with my free merchant account? Securtiy is a big issue with me.

4.) I read that the WM Autopiolet is free and $25 if HostGator sets it up for me. I don't want to spend the $25 to install a script which im well qualified to install. That being said, do they provide me with the files for thes cript and I compile and configure it or how exactly does this work?

5.) Am I able to only offer shared hosting plans with my new clients or can I also offer them re-seller hosting?

These questions may seem "stupid" but I would really like to get the facts straight for EVERYTHING before I decide to move foward with anything. Also, please excuse any typos as I've only had about three hours of sleep and have worked all day.

Thanks in advance,

Josh

I also forgot to mention:

Shell access....

I use google's sitemap generator for use with a lot of search engines. I also use some CGI scripts which need shell access. My old shared host enabled this for me in a jail cell where i could easily run a small python script (ie. Googles sitemap generator script)

Is shell access possible on re-seller or not?

Thanks once again,

Josh

[jeepxj86]

Guess no one has good support on here. Had no idea why I was thinking about going back to HostGator when I had such problems with them last time around.

HostGator -- Huge hosting company who cares more about taking in customers than support. I'd also like to mention that I will be going full fledged dedi instead of a small re-seller or a VPS.

Josh

P.S. Please compare your hosting options!

[Serra]

Originally Posted by jeepxj86

Guess no one has good support on here. Had no idea why I was thinking about going back to HostGator when I had such problems with them last time around.

No, actually, everyone is just busy and you didn't bother to search for the answers to your questions, which are already in this forum. No one wants to spoon feed you the answers.

I will never understand why people thing that good support means spoon feeding them the answers that they could find themselves with a simple search. Good support to me is fixing things that don't work, not offereing training for would-be resellers or novice web designers.

These questions may seem "stupid" but I would really like to get the facts straight for EVERYTHING before I decide to move foward with anything. Also, please excuse any typos as I've only had about three hours of sleep and have worked all day.

The questions aren't stupid, these are things you should get answers to, but about the 100th time I answered them, I got bored and moved on to more difficult questions...

Keep in mind that this is a "peer" support forum, not a "they pay us" support forum....