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10 favorite web-based administration tools10 PhotosJan 14, 2011 9:48 AM PST

Jack Wallen profiles his 10 favorite web-based tools for everything from administeringservers to creating an online blog.

cPanel hosting platform

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What are your favorite web-based admin tools? After you look through this list, tell us aboutyour own favorites.cPanel is one of the industry standards in taking a standalone server and turning itinto a power-house, automated hosting platform. With cPanel your clients can enjoyone of the single most user-friendly administration panels you will find, bar none. Fromthis control panel your clients can build their own sites (using Fantastico), manageemail/user/ftp/domains/databases, view log files, and much more.

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CUPS interface for print server

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For anyone that manages a Linux-based print server, the CUPS web-based interface will bea blessing. Instead of having to be seated at that print server, or remoting into the machineitself, you can fire up http://ADDRESS_OF_SERVER:631 (Where ADDRESS_OF_SERVERis the actual address of the print server). From this interface you can manage printers/printergroups/print jobs, as well as control who has access to which printers. This printer admintool is installed by default with CUPS.

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eGroupware

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eGroupware is one of the more powerful open source groupware tools and has one of thebest interfaces for administering individual components. From the Preferences screen, justclick which component you want to administer and you're in. This screenshot shows theeGroupware Calendar configuration.

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ISPConfig

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If you are an ISP, or you are looking to start an ISP, then you should not overlook ISPConfig.This administration tool makes the task of administering multiple servers, multiple domains,and multiple clients a snap. From a single web interface you can administer everything.And since ISPConfig is open source, you are also welcome to modify the source to fit yourneeds.

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phpLDAPadmin

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If you know of the php administration tools, you should know about phpLDAPadmin. Thisweb-based tool makes the administration of LDAP data very easy. For those of you whoprefer not to have to deal with learning all of the command-line tools for LDAP, you will beglad to know this admin tool is practically all point-and-click.

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phpMyAdmin

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phpMyAdmin is to MySQL what phpLDAPadmin is to LDAP. From this single point of entry,you can manage your current databases and create new databases. What is nice about thisparticular admin tool is that, should you need, you can also issue standard MySQL queriesand commands from the SQL tab.

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SQL Buddy

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If you've had any trouble installing phpMyAdmin, and you're desperate for a web-basedMySQL administration tool, I highly recommend SQL Buddy. This tool is as simple as it gets.With a working MySQL server already up and running (along with a web server), unpack theSQL Buddy archive, place it in the document root of your web server, and log in. With zeroconfiguration, you can be managing your databases within minutes.

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SWAT for Samba

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If you have a SAMBA server (or SAMBA installed on a desktop) and you want to be ableto manage SAMBA from any machine with nothing more than a web browser, that is whatSWAT will do for you. With SWAT you can start/stop your smbd daemon, you can modifyyour smb.conf and lmhosts files, and you can even manage smb passwords for users.

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Webmin

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Often thought of as one of the most powerful administration tools available, Webmin haslong been one of the standards by which all other web-based tools are compared. Webminallows you to add/remove numerous modules that can administer just about every possibleservice you can imagine. From this tool you can even control what services are started onthe machine and even manage clustering (if available). There are some that claim Webminis a security vulnerability. But on a well-configured, secure server, any vulnerability thatmight be introduced would be nullified.

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Wordpress blogging tool

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One of the most user-friendly and wide-spread online blogging tools, Wordpress also hasone of the easiest to use administration interfaces you will find. From wp-admin you canmanage the look and feel of your Wordpress-based blog, add/remove widgets, manageusers, moderate comments and trackbacks, and much more. The Wordpress admininterface is as user-friendly as is its WYSIWYG editor.

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