Best of the ISP-Lists

You Only Get One Chance to Choose a Dialer

ISP owners ruefully admit that if you mail out the wrong software on your CDs, you may never recover from your mistake.

[July 21, 2003]

On ISP-Marketing in June, DJ asked:

Any feedback on dialers? Specifically ISPWizard, Friendly, and Gearbox. Thanks. NO SALES CALLS PLEASE.

No responders had used Friendly, but the other two products each had enthusiasts.

[DR said] "We use Gearbox. It is pretty robust. It is customizable as far as branding. We are not CGI and Perl programmers, so some of it is tedious to brand.

I have had to create my own "set up instructions." Theirs were way too long and complicated. They definitely do not adhere to the KISS theory. So I make a simple checklist leading people through the process step by step and it goes out with the CD. Never have tried any others. Would like to know what others think also."

[AH pondered] "Check out ISPWizard. This one looks to be very robust."

[JS claimed] "We use ISPWizard for more than 200 client ISPs. We have found it to be rock solid, easy to use and versatile. "

Controversy ensued.

[MH scoffed] "ISPWizard is Robust? Yeah, if you're a gas station coffee drinker.

In my honest opinion, and I've done a good bit of research on thesecompanies over the years, Gearbox is the better of the three you asked about. ISPWizard is not much more than a glorified do-it-yourself IEAK and not even in the same ball park as the other two he mentioned. That's why ISPWizard is only $250 (how do they make money?). It has no real signup integration (requires two setups and a functioning web based signup to work). It has no self healing/diagnostic properties. No PUSH technology. Plus, it looks like it stepped right out of Windows 95. The tech support you save by using a product like Gearbox more than justifies the cost, so don't skimp. In addition to initially setting up the user's machine and provisioning the account, a dialer is something your users will use every day to connect and manage their connection."

This brought a mixed response.

[ISP replied] "Now that's not very professional from a peer competitor. Sure, like everything else, you get what you pay for but look at how many ISPs out there want free or cheap."

[AH noted] "Thanks for the insight on ISPWizard. I thought it was better than that. I currently use Gearbox and now I think I will stay with it."

One satisfied Gearbox user, AB, brought the thread to its conclusion with a thorough post:

Hey guys, thought I would comment since I've had quite a bit ofexperience with the gearbox 3.x product.

Before Gearbox we had a not-so savory experience with a different vendor. I now know the importance of getting it right the first time. The scars continue to emerge even years after deployment of the lesser product.

We now use gearbox for all our Dialup, Cable (PPPoE), Wireless, and LAN connections. All of which are on 1 CD. We even did a custom build for another company, to allow a dialup interface strictly for use with online banking. Set a static Username/password and 800 number then boom portable online banking without having to have internet access accounts. Gearbox is really very customizable.

Updates
Since our initial release we have made access number updates(additions, deletions, modifications), Name server updates, and popped text boxes with information for our customers.

It's simple to write the updates, and you don't need any programming experience. Most of the things you will want to do is already an example that you can practically sub out the values. The "update testing" process is also easy in that you build it once and you are ready to test any subsequent changes.

I would generally suggest 10hrs design time to complete a build and 5hrs testing for a broadband build. A simple dialup build should take less, but it really depends on how many customizations you want to do. We are customization happy and spent several hours playing with the lines of script code by hand.

Configuration
Easy dialer settings. Go online, make the changes to the forms and download the new scripts. Every setting needed be it static DNS or ipx/spx is available in the forms. For DSL/PPPoE applications, movie content is available for incorrectly setup NIC/DSL modems. If you have acable network and only allow one type of modem, the software will check for it and only install if it's present. Two Available PPPoE clients were available when we did it. We use EnternetDUN and it works well with the Gearbox Software.

From a customer perspective, it's great in that the portal allows for some of your common links such as Webmail, news, and perhaps a stock ticker. Further in-depth customization is available if you want to modify the script by hand. Again, it's not difficult to understand and most of the time you can set a Y/N value, or string.

The Portal allows for customized application launches, such as suggested FTP or IRC clients. The installer allows for several external software spawns while gearbox is installing.

Icon/Name branding is no problem. Nice help system for those users curious and wanting to solve their own problems. The content however is easily replaced with what you want them to have. We branded and replaced a good portion of the default help texts, but you really don't need to.

Neat features
Possibly the single greatest feature is the autofix. If you happen tohave a mischievous user who likes to change every setting possible,gearbox will detect it at launch and ask to fix them. Dialer settings,even Outlook Express account settings. It's very helpful when a techhas them launch the dialer, and a popup says that it detected problems.Then they click OK and fix the majority of the user's problems.

Since our gearbox deployment most of our calls are educating the userabout the internet, fixing handshake issues, billing, and general OSissues. (printers, screen resolution, and what not)

Gearbox plays nice with itself as well. Multiple installations even if a different type (broadband and dialup)will not break it.

It also includes a few billing system files for integration in the newuser signup. Theoretically is supports all billing packages, butspecific pages were provided for Platypus and Rodopi.

All around a great product!
They are very responsive to technical problems and such.

I've no experience with the other two mentioned.

—End