cPanel Email Integration

Have a cpanel shared account and want to offer free or premium email hosting service to your guests? Use the world's first complete and stable solution with paypal ipn already integrated! Protects against sql injections and cross site scripting!

http://espsoftwaresolutions.com/cpanel_email_integration.html

Plesk Email Integration

Looking to host free and premium email hosting service on your plesk dedicated server? Then purchase the world's only truly stable and safe solution to plesk automated email hosting! You can let your users choose from any domain on your server!

http://espsoftwaresolutions.com/plesk_email_integration.html

ESP Social Core

If you are looking to jump into the Social Networking Goldmine, here is your chance. Check out ESP SOCIAL CORE II, and modular and object oriented social networking system. It even offers email hosting out of the box! Stable, secure, and fully tested!

http://espsoftwaresolutions.com/portal_system_social_networking.html

PIRANHA FEED: Version 2.50

I purchased this for my wife's website and once again, I stumbled upon a crapper. The software has no templating engine and requires Register_Globals to be on in order to operate properly. For example, without register_globals on, I cannot login to admin. Bummer.

So, I open the install script in Edit Pad Pro and I got angry. The code is encrypted. What a pain in the ass. No wonder it was so cheap. The developer does not offer install support, so I am guessing that the chap may not have been the developer. What respectable developer does not offer install support? I sent a support email at 10:34 PM GMT and we will see how long it takes to get a reply...if I get a reply. Turns out that you have to pay for installation, too! How lame.

This software gets a 1/10 for out of date coding, lack of security, encrypted code, no templating engine what-so-ever, and because I cannot even get past the install without serious issues. Don't buy this crapola.

Amendment (April 9th, 2006):

The developer emailed me that he has a patch but has not yet emailed it to me. It has been about 5 days now...still waiting.

Blog System v1.4

This is the most comprehensive software I have seen in my life. I give props to the developers, because they thought of everything. The admin panel impresses me with contact form generation that takes just seconds and requires no coding at all. It also offers multiple tools for each feature, even in multiple languages. If you are looking for serious and hardcore blogging software with all of the whistles, this is it! It even comes with hundreds of templates for bloggers to choose from and full source code edit capability for every user.

With what I have seen thus far, I rate this software a 10/10, it truly puts other blog hosting suites to shame. The price is well under-priced in my opinion!

Check it out here: http://www.netartmedia.net/blogsystem/

WordPress MU

WordpressMU is the multi-user version of Wordpress. I have been testing WPMU and reviewing its source code and am 100% pleased with its development! I cannot often say that. Users have the power to control nearly every facet of their blog and there are hundreds of themes and 3rd party plugins for WPMU. I found a few small things that annoyed me, but they were minor. One issue, if a user attempts to login with a false username then a message will say "You must have cookies enabled in order to use WordPress.Com". However, I am not running the software at wordpress.com, so that was annoying. But, if you edit 'wp-login.php', then you change change it to your domain. I suggest using "Edit Pad Pro" for editting php files. I is a supercharged version of Ms-Notepad.

What I loved the most is that I can use any blog theme as the skin for the main site. Although, the theme would need a little tweaking for it to fly as a main site skin.

Even though WordPress Multi-User is still under-going development, I recommend it 300% and rate it a 9.5/10. The reason for it not being perfect is that I have found some areas that are at risk to sql injections, because POST/GET data is not validated before being used in mysql queries.

Check them out at: http://mu.wordpress.org/

LinkLok: Digital product shopping cart

LinkLok is a very small script that allows you to sell digital media via paypal, 2checkout.com and more. However, you must purchace a license for each merchant you plan to use and run multile scripts for multiple merchants. Config was easy since I have php config experience, but newbies might get confused. The software did allow me to setup a store with my design though and did in fact work.

I give LinkLok a 6/10 for simplicity, good templatability, and lack of statistical tools.

Cubecart: Online shopping cart software

This software is great for those who haven't the time to code up a multi gateway shopping cart. It allows use of almost every merchant on the web, with easy configuration. The only problem I have is with 2checkout.com passbacks and with templating. The template changing process is a pain in the rear, but I can look beyond that since the software is so configurable in other areas.

I give this CubeCart a 8/10 for features, ease of use, multi-merchant support, but slow technical support and not so customizable templating.

EZyPal Paypal shopping cart for Digital Media

EzyPal is a fairly well coded shopping cart with emphasis on ease of use and good navigational flow. The admin panel, in my opinion, needs a bit more work on the javascript side, but all in all I have been happy with this software. I began using it when I became overlaoded with work and had just no more extra time for coding my own cart.

The programmer offers excellent support, and fixed my problem in a very prompt manner. THe only thing I would change is to add a templating engine and mod_rewrite for search engine friendly URLs, but I did this myself with ease.

I give this software a 8/10 for good coding and excellent support.

Newlife Blogger (Multi-User Blogging System) Reviewed

The "New Life Blogger" by Sevengraff.Com is a very well put together suite. It does not have all the bells and whistles like trackback, but it offers some extremely secure and organized code. It uses ETS for templating and is developed for php4.

I have to say that I enjoy the security the most. Nick, the author, really had his shit together when he wrote the functions for user data validation.

I used the software for 3 years, but then I wanted more and am in the market for a suite with more features. But, Nick says that he has been planning NLB4, which I am looking forward to. It will include PEAR and all of the bells and whistles I need for my blog users' enjoyment.

I would not mind buying the rights to this open source software, it is very nice.

I rate the "New Life Blogger" a 7/10, missing the perfect mark due to lack of newer technologies like trackback and podcasting.

Turnkey php software (Popscript & Prozilla)

Ok, most webmasters have seen this software by Popscript.Com and Prozilla. Their software was great for early versions of php3, but if you use any modern version of php then avoid this software. The support is horrible and I honestly do not think the people selling it know a thing about php. Every security vulnerability you can think of is in their software. In fact, you can only run it with Register_Globals on and you better have magic_quotes_gpc on or your ass will be hacked faster than Microsoft on HackDay (sorry billy).

The webmaster that sells this software is a newbie and really is lazy, but he makes money. Why does he make money? Because he lies to people and tells them that his software is secure and written in php4.

For their entire collection I give a 2/10 for piss poor coding and lack of worthwhile support.

Million Dollar Script reviewed!

One of my web hosting customers has two sites using the "Million Dollar Script", a fairly new fad in online advertising which allows web publishers to sell ad space on a per pixel basis. Personally, I think this is a retarded fad that will burn out when the buyers realize that the only person getting rich is the software developer. However, I created this blog to review php software, not the application of software on the web.

The first problem is that the programmer failed to use as little mysql queries as possible, which causes your server to work harder than it really needs to.

The second problem is that the programmer is using outdated server variables instead of just using POST, REQUEST, or GET. This causes data to not be passed correctly from script to script on servers running php4 or php5. The problem is a biggie, because users cannot register or login on php4+ servers running with register_globals off.

The next problem is not really a problem, but an annoyance. The software has the html code embedded in the code. Come on, was it too much trouble to use a light weight templating system so that your users would be able to template the software precisely to their needs?

Now the kicker. Hackers will find that hacking this system will be simple, thanks to the fact that this programmer knew nothing of validating user submitted data. So, expect sql injections and the like... as well as some issues due to register_globals needing to be on.

I told the programmer of the many notices and warnings that php outputted upon running the software. Instead of debugging, he stated that he expects users to set error reporting to E_ERROR. Ok, that is lazy. FYI, those notices and warnings are there for a reason. They usually mean that values are not going to be passed from page to page properly.

I rate this software a 3/10 for lack of security, templatability, and purpose. Really, what good is purchasing a couple of pixels on a page that Google will see as crap?