Reseller question about bandwidth/upgrading

[sharris203]

I plan to purchase a reseller server package soon, and have a few questions.

Let's say I have 500GB bandwidth per month.

If I allow each customer 50GB bandwidth (knowing theyll most likely not use that much, i'll be building their websites) x 50 customers

1. If I go over my bandwidth limits will I have ample time to upgrade or how soon might I be suspended?

2. If I have just ONE heavy user, how difficult is it to migrate just that one cpanel account to a 2nd reseller server I manage? or to a non-reseller unlimited shared hosting account just used for them?

3. Can I set the allowed bandwidth for everyone and auto-suspend them if they go over?

MOST IMPORTANTLY
4. When transferring/upgrading cpanel accounts to different servers, what is the downtime (if any)? What happens if my customer is updating a file on the old server before the dns settings propagate to the new server? They will wonder why the files they just uploaded are now missing.

[sharris203]

Edit, I got answers to Q1 and Q3 in the forums. Q2 & Q4 still apply.

I'm very interested to know how I can switch all of my customers to a new server (without telling them) and what happens if they upload a file while the old DNS settings are in effect. When the new DNS setting kick in the files will be missing.

[HalbrookTech]

Q2. Shouldn't be too hard.
Q4. You should tell them if you're going to have to do that.

[sharris203]

Is it possible for all of my clients to have access to my monthly bandwidth allowance, or does each individual account need to have those allocated?

Most of my clients will have <500mb websites and <1GB transfer. It seems a bit of a waste to set them on a plan with 10GB space and 25GB bandwidth.

[HalbrookTech]

Don't. Make your plans and prices what you think they need/will pay. I have 2 clients with 3 plans paying a combined $35/mo for 1200 megs. And I've got others that I'm working on deals with on getting things set up.

[sharris203]

Can you give an example of packages you offer?

[HalbrookTech]

I offer only 2 plans 10/mo for 500 megs/5 gigs and 25/mo for 1g/10g. Then the same 2 plans but with a Zikula CMS Framework maintenance plan.

[sharris203]

My only problem is that I myself am used to seeing unlimited shared hosting all over the place. But the reality is that most of my clients are not computer savvy at all and those plans would be great for them. Thanks for giving me some ideas

[striddy]

Originally Posted by sharris203

Let's say I have 500GB bandwidth per month.

If I allow each customer 50GB bandwidth (knowing theyll most likely not use that much, i'll be building their websites) x 50 customers

You can't create accounts in excess of your reseller plans disk and bandwidth limits. If you wanted to allocate 50Gb each customer, you could only create 10 accounts using your theoretical 500Gb reseller account.

Originally Posted by sharris203

If I go over my bandwidth limits will I have ample time to upgrade or how soon might I be suspended?

The cpanel account that goes over the bandwidth limit will get suspended straight away.

Originally Posted by sharris203

If I have just ONE heavy user, how difficult is it to migrate just that one cpanel account to a 2nd reseller server I manage? or to a non-reseller unlimited shared hosting account just used for them?

You can upgrade your reseller account to a higher plan easily, but to migrate to a shared account is different as you cannot resell shared accounts.

Originally Posted by sharris203

Can I set the allowed bandwidth for everyone and auto-suspend them if they go over?

Yes, that's exactly how WHM works.

Originally Posted by sharris203

When transferring/upgrading cpanel accounts to different servers, what is the downtime (if any)? What happens if my customer is updating a file on the old server before the dns settings propagate to the new server? They will wonder why the files they just uploaded are now missing.

You don't move servers when you upgrade to a higher level of reseller account so there is no downtime / propagation to worry about. If moving to a VPS or dedicated server there will be some downtime, and you need to allow time for propagation. You should contact your customers before such migrations so they don't experience difficulties.

[HalbrookTech]

Originally Posted by sharris203

My only problem is that I myself am used to seeing unlimited shared hosting all over the place. But the reality is that most of my clients are not computer savvy at all and those plans would be great for them. Thanks for giving me some ideas

Yeah, they're all over the place, but part of my pitch, when needed, is that they do that because they know you're rarely use it, and with YouTube, Picassa, Flickr, etc the things that take up the most space on a server don't have to be hosted locally anyway.

That said, I also have discount codes for various groups of friends/aquaintences. Let's face it I'm paying substantially less than a penny per meg...

[sharris203]

I can set my company name to show on the clients credit card charge right? And, is it possible to easily change this name later? (I may change my company name)

What about changing company name on the enom domain registration whois?

Also can the billing system only be used for hosting or is it usable as a shopping cart merchant account as well?

[striddy]

Originally Posted by sharris203

I can set my company name to show on the clients credit card charge right? And, is it possible to easily change this name later? (I may change my company name)

What about changing company name on the enom domain registration whois?

Also can the billing system only be used for hosting or is it usable as a shopping cart merchant account as well?

You would be best to email sales at hostgator dot com with your questions. You will then get the official reply that you need.

[sharris203]

Originally Posted by striddy

You would be best to email sales at hostgator dot com with your questions. You will then get the official reply that you need.

No problem, I just thought these may be changeable in the reseller control panel.

[sharris203]

I know resellers are supposed to provide support for their clients.
What happens in case of emergency/I wind up in hospital and cannot support my clients, and then they end up contacting hostgator. What may happen then?

I'm just planning ahead.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by sharris203

I can set my company name to show on the clients credit card charge right? And, is it possible to easily change this name later? (I may change my company name)

...

Also can the billing system only be used for hosting or is it usable as a shopping cart merchant account as well?

First question--you can do it any way you want because you have to get your own payment mechanism, whether Paypal or your own merchant account/gateway/card processing setup.

Third question--for your clients or for you? No for your clients and while you could, for you, it is much better at billing- than shopping- type commerce. You can install any of thousands of free and commercial e-commerce apps for a better shopping cart.

[sharris203]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

First question--you can do it any way you want because you have to get your own payment mechanism, whether Paypal or your own merchant account/gateway/card processing setup.

Third question--for your clients or for you? No for your clients and while you could, for you, it is much better at billing- than shopping- type commerce. You can install any of thousands of free and commercial e-commerce apps for a better shopping cart.

Thanks, I'm not familiar with the billing system yet and was just wondering how everything worked. I do have a shopping cart for myself but it only uses Paypal. I've never had a merchant account and now seems a good opportunity to get one.