This MacNews Category Review looks at ISP Tools for Mac OS X. Products covered include MSM IP Setup, NameStalker, Optigold ISP, pptp-gui, TimeGain and ZipBurst.
MSM IP Setup
[url=http://www.ImageMontage.com/macosx-ipsetup/]MSM IP Setup[/url] is a free utility that lets you use Apple's Security Framework to handle user authentication and launching of the command line tool, InstallService, to change network configurations. It's designed for use by ISPs and universities, it also works with dialup modems (including PPP login scripts) and Ethernet configurations.
NameStalker
[url=http://www.digitalpoint.com/]NameStalker[/url] is a multi-threaded application designed for ISPs, web hosts and so on to monitor domains which they own. It's free for up to 100 domains.
Optigold ISP
[url=http://www.getdemocracy.com/]Optigold ISP[/url] is designed for ISPs to manage their business -- invoicing, usage tracking, localization of invoices, blacklisting, billing, finance charges and more. It also has a range of reporting functions.
pptp-gui
[url=http://pptp.monitzer.com/]pptp-gui[/url] offers PPTP support, specifically for some ADSL ISPs (Austria, France, Iceland, Holland, Israel, USA, etc.)
TimeGain
[url=http://www.isp-billing.com/]TimeGain[/url] is ISP billing software with an integrated account management and billing program. It has a color coded interface, and there are no limitations on the number of different billing plans per customer. Invoices, welcome letters and correspondence can be emailed directly from within the program, and unpaid customers are automatically chased by email on a daily basis.
ZipBurst
[url=http://www.dantowitz.com/]ZipBurst[/url] lets ISPs create a zip code based search engine to find the closest locations by distance from a zip code. The ZipBurst Generator creates an index file that is used by the ZipBurst CGI, running on a web server.
For an in-depth round-up of Mac products, go to the [url=http://guide.apple.com/index.lasso]Macintosh Products Guide[/url].