Accounting/Billing User management software
For Internet and intranet service providers

 

  Titles

 Potential customers

 Software capabilities and features

 LAN accounting Facilities

 Dialup accounting Facilities

 IP assignment to users

 Virtual ISP (reselling) facilities

 Access to user properties

 Internet card sales facilities

 Windows NT dependency

 Limitations on ports

 Monitoring facilities

 Batch facilities

 Variation of accounting services and scripts used for user limitation

 Safe and easy backup generation

 Facilities on the Web

 The filter levels

 Compatibility

 

Titles:
Potential customers
Software capabilities and features
LAN accounting Facilities
Dialup accounting Facilities
IP assignment to users
Virtual ISP (reselling) facilities
Access to user properties
Internet card sales facilities
Windows NT dependency
Limitations on ports
Monitoring facilities
Batch facilities
Variation of accounting services and scripts used for user limitation
Safe and easy backup generation
Facilities on the Web
The filter levels
Compatibility

Potential customers
All companies, departments and organizations which provide Internet or intranet services for their staff or customers could use it to control, manage and limit their users or have reports about them.

Software capabilities and features
Explicit and user-friendly setup
A complete manual and online help
Usable for LAN (either with or without proxy), dial-up (either via Access server (Radius protocol) or via multi-port (RAS or RRAS))
Any type of service with any kind of limitation could be defined in this program.
(I.e. services with two or more charge rates, time-based, volume based, time &
Volume-based, flat, monthly, contract-based).
Compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Strong monitoring of servers status by a server or via Internet
Online disconnection of a user with no credit or other limitations
The ability to define the number of concurrent sessions for each user
Users can change their password via Web
User information management through Web (creating a new user, deleting a user,
Modifying user information)
Allocating static IP address from a specified range of IP addresses
Generating reports of consumption and credit for each user via Web
Automatically sending alert messages to the users
Supporting Virtual ISP or Reseller definition, in a way that the agent (virtual ISP) could act as a real ISP
Supporting CHAP & PAP for authentication
Integrated management of users on different servers, in a way that multiple servers of different types (i.e. RAS, LAN or Radius) could be managed at the same time
Supporting the sales system of Internet cards
Calculating users consumption since his /her first connection
Different access levels and permissions could be assigned to the operators
Running independently of Windows NT or dependant on NT
Backup facility for all parts of the program (even passwords and NT groups) so there is no need to worry about your precious information concerning users
Running as a client program on one or several machines so that you do not need to use the main server for managerial tasks
Applying limitations to users who are using a specified service or belonging to a specific reseller to a specific set of ports; this facility eases the grouping of different rotary services (e.g. when distinguishing flat users from time-limited users)
Executable as a service without the need to logon to a server
Powerful compound statistical reports could be generated via Web
Statistical graphs concerning the work load of telephone lines at different hours
Report definition and reuse of predefined reports

LAN accounting Facilities

A) With proxy
A-1) Microsoft Proxy or ISA Server, there are two solutions available for these situations which are:

A-1-1) in the first situation, ISPUtil provides a Client/Server system which could be in charge of authentication and accounting. In this situation the client software should be installed on each computer on the network; it is easily installed. User uses this software to logon to the network. This software has an icon, which is like the one in the Dialup Networking window, and displays the users connection status and his connect time and transfer amount.
In this situation all of the facilities needed for LAN user accounting are available such as disconnecting online users, deactivating active users and in this aspect there is no difference with dialup users.

A-1-2) in the second situation there is no need that the users install any software and authentication is carried out via web by the server. In this way it is much easier than the previously mentioned method to manage a broad network but it is not very popular with the users.

In this situation all of the facilities needed for LAN user accounting are available such as disconnecting online users, deactivating active users and displaying active users and in this aspect there is no difference with dialup users.

A-2) Using WinRoute or WinGate proxies

In this situation, the software uses the user log to do the accounting and it is obvious that there is no way to disconnect an online user

A-3) Using other types of proxy
As this software uses a plugin-based structure to communicate with the log of a proxy server, any type of proxy that is needed could be introduced to the technical staff and be used for accounting.


B) Without proxy
If the network has no proxy, which nowadays most of the networks are in this way, there are three general solutions:

B-1) Using VPN, in this situation, one of networks servers should be configured as a VPN server and the VPN client software should be installed on the networks computers.
In this way, which is fully supported by ISPUtil, there is only one problem and that is the performance because VPN server uses a lot of resources (i.e. memory and CPU) and is not recommended for large networks.

In this situation all of the facilities needed for LAN user accounting are available such as disconnecting online users, deactivating active users and displaying active users and in this aspect there is no difference with dialup users.

B-2) Using the Client/Server structure, in this situation a part of ISPUtil which acts as the server should be installed on a computer which is located in the packet route and the client software should be installed on the networks computers.

Users login to the server by this software. This software has an icon, which is like the one in the Dialup Networking window, and displays the users connection status and his connect time and transfer amount.

In this situation all of the facilities needed for LAN user accounting are available such as disconnecting online users, deactivating active users and displaying active users and in this aspect there is no difference with dialup users. It also does not overload the server.

B-3) in this situation the software should not be placed in the packet route, but it should only be placed in a computer that can sniff the network. For example in the case of networks which do not use a switch, it does not make a difference on which computer it is installed, but in other cases it should be installed on a computer which is in the packet route.

In this way the software analyzes the passing packets and carries out the accounting tasks but as it makes no changes to the packets it cannot disconnect an online user.

Dialup accounting Facilities
If ISPUtil is used for dialup user accounting, depending on whether the ports for user connection are connected to Windows server (either by multi-ports or multi-modems) or they are connected to an Access server, which is located in the network, the software can take care of the accounting tasks.


In the first situation Windows might be in the RAS or RRAS mode which are both compatible with the software and in the second situation it works with all types of access server as it supports the Radius protocol.

As all those who are skilled in this field know, Radius has theoretical problems with synchronization (Here are some problems of that: disconnecting an online user and the case of stop packets). This problem is mostly solved by other solutions such and it differs for different ASs. The Ass which are used in the ISPUtil software are supported fully and have no problem, they are Cisco, Lucent, Taicom Top server, Linux based access server, Win2k radius. In case of other ASs too, as the Radius protocol is fully supported some tricks could be used to solve the problem.

IP assignment to users
The structure of the program is designed in such a way that it could assign IP addresses to users. This does not include RRAS or LAN users because assigning IP address in a LAN network is something absurd and in the case of RRAS IP is assigned by Windows.

Different IP classes could be defined in the program and assigned to a group of users so that when they connect (server type makes no difference) an IP address of that class is assigned to them. An IP address could also be assigned to a user according to the type of server he connects to (for example if the user named X connects to router 1 the IP 192.168.100.100 is assigned to him and if he connects to router 2 the IP 192.168.101.100 is assigned).

If you want to define users who will only have permission to use E-mail, you could define an IP class in the network and assign it to these users. Other methods (e.g. closing all the ports except for SMTP and POP3 for these IPs) could be used to give access to E-mail.

An ISP could also have two or more services with different IP ranges and different qualities (e.g. class 1 and 2). A group of users could be assigned an IP address of class 1 and the other group an IP address of class 2 regardless of the server they connect to.

Virtual ISP (reselling) facilities
An unlimited number of resellers or virtual ISPs could be defined in ISPUtil. A reseller could virtually provide all of the services of an ISP. Here are some of these services:

Access to user properties
Creating new users
Modifying user information
Recording user payments
Viewing online users related to the agent
Online strong compound statistical reports

It should be noted that two accounting method are defined for each reseller and they are both recorded in the program; one is related to the contract between the ISP and the reseller and the other one keeps track of the contracts between the reseller and its users. It is obvious that contracts of the second type could be different with one another.

For example suppose that an ISP has received 1000000 Rials and has sold its Internet services to its resellers for the price of 3000 Rials per hour and half the price at nights. This reseller could sell these services in ways and prices that he desires (for example based on transfer rate KB, monthly, unlimited, hourly) it is obvious that if a reseller uses all his credit neither him nor his users cannot connect to the network.

Internet card sales facilities
Random generation of user names and passwords
Generation of serial numbers
Printing the generated user names and passwords
Permission management
Imposing limits on operators when accessing different parts of program like creating new users, deleting users, access via web, reconfiguration of the program, accessing the monitoring section of the program and

Windows NT dependency
This program could run either dependant on NT or independent of NT. When running dependant on NT, NT does authentication and when running independent of NT, ISPUtil carries out authentication. When running independently, it could be installed on other Windows family members such as Win98. If you are using RAS you cannot run the program independently of NT because Windows performs authentication. But in case of RRAS you could do so if you have structured it with Radius.

The advantage of being independent of NT is higher security level your of network. It also speeds up the authentication process in large networks and prevents problems that are caused by long authentication times.

The advantage of being dependent on NT could be felt while using programs such as Microsoft Exchange, which use NT database. When a new user is created it is also registered in NT or domain and the Exchange program could use it and an E-mail address is assigned to it. Anyway if you are using other software such as ISA Server or MS Proxy, which are in close contact with NT users, you should work dependant on NT.

Limitations on ports
Using this program you could dedicate one or more ports to one or more users. You could dedicate one port to one user or dedicate a number of ports to a group of users that use a specific service or users who are members of a specific group.

Monitoring facilities
Monitoring servers status
Definition and display of different graphs concerning networks traffic
Monitoring online users status
Disconnecting one or a group of online users
Monitoring resellers users status

Monitoring servers status using different statistical graphs and disconnecting users remotely. As the amount of data transfer between ISPUtil and the programs Engine is low, monitoring could be done via a dialup connection.
Event viewer
Statistical graphs concerning the workload of network lines

Batch facilities
ISPUtil provides you with batch processing of groups of users, the examples are:
Deleting a group of users
Charging a group of users with an amount of credit
Reducing the credit of a group of users
Adding a service to a group of users
Deleting a service from a group of users
Changing user passwords of a group of users
Changing the reseller of a group of users
Disabling or enabling a group of users

Variation of accounting services and scripts used for user limitation
One of the most important features of this software is its flexibility in defining different types of services. It is like that you could define any type of service based on different parameters of data transfer and time and uses them in your program.

These services which are software particles are added easily to the program.
Our company has provided these services to match your needs but whenever you need a new type of service that is not available in the software we will provide for you.

Here are some of the cases you could define in your services are:

Imposing limits based on parameters of data transfer and time
Multi-priced services in different time intervals
Disconnection of a user when its idle timeout is reached
Limiting the amount of data transfer and usage time of a user in each session
Limiting the amount of data transfer and usage time of a user in different time intervals
Defining the calculation method and price for different time intervals (e.g. day or night)
Defining the program reaction to different events
Calculation of used credit based on different parameters (e.g. time of calculation, connect time, amount of data transfer, number of simultaneous sessions of a user and other needed parameters).

Safe and easy backup generation
One of the important features of this software is its backup facility that covers the whole database. As all of the user information (even passwords) is stored in the database, a daily backup routine could be performed. Even if Windows is lost all of the users could be exported using the backup copy of the database.

Facilities on the Web
Facilities for users:
Modification of password
User connection reports in a specified time interval
User consumption reports in a specified time interval
User payment reports in a specified time interval

Facilities for network administrators
Access to all user facilities
Defining new users
Modification of user information
Defining different classes for users
Recording user payment lists
Viewing online users
Online compound statistical reports

Facilities for agents
All of the facilities used by network administrator (among its own users) such as:
Access to all user (its own users) facilities
Defining new users
Modification of user information
Recording user payment lists
Viewing online users (its own users)
Online compound statistical reports
Program reports

The programs set of report is comprehensive and provides the network administrator with a lot of facilities. These reports could be filtered in three levels and then by choosing the type of report they are viewed.


To facilitate the work even further the user could define its own reports with the following levels:

The filter levels:
A) First level: Group filters
All of the users, a specific group of users, a specific number of users, a specific user, a specific agents users, all of the agents, a specific agent, a list of specific users.

B) Second level: Compound filters
Online users, users using a specific class for their calculations, users using a specific IP class, users who have not connected since n days ago, users who have been created in the last n days, users who have connected for the first time since n days ago, active users, inactive users, users whose credit fall into a specific range.

C) Third level: User connection filters
Connections made through a specified server, Connections made through a specified set of ports, Connections made using a specified set of IP addresses, Connections made in a specified time interval of a day.
Types of report

The different types of report based on filtered information are:

Statistical report based on the information, information list, general report of each user, general report of each server, general report of each IP, general report of each port, general report of each group, general report of each accounting class and general report of each IP class.
In addition, all of the above mentioned reports could be generated periodically (daily, monthly or annually).

Compatibility
This software is compatible with different versions of Win NT either 4 or 2000 and it is also compatible with Windows.net and could manage all different types of hardware and software routers and RAS, multiport, multimodem, rack modem, access server online.