Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently-asked questions about the Jet billing system, and IP accounting in general, are answered below.

If you have a question not covered below, please contact us and one of our technical staff will answer you promptly.

Technical Overview

What technologies does Jet use?

Jet is written in python, and uses Zope and MySQL. It has been tested on FreeBSD, Solaris, and Linux, and can be ported to Windows - contact us if that's a requirement. All the above are Open-Source tools, and are very portable across systems.

Can Jet use other database backends?

Currently, Jet uses only MySQL. However, we are in the process of porting to PostgreSQL, with a likely port to ODBC (for Oracle and MS-SQL) shortly after that. If you require support for something other than MySQL, we'd be happy to hear from you.

What Radius servers will Jet work with?

Jet operates very well with Radiator (http://www.open.com.au/). We will produce modules for other Radius servers as required, but so far Radiator has been the chosen radius server for the majority of our clients (and we recommend it generally).

What Operating Systems does Jet run on?

In terms of operating systems it has been tested on Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. It could be ported to MS Windows, and probably other operating systems. This is possible because the underlying technologies - python, Zope, MySQL - are all fairly platform-independant.

What other systems will Jet interoperate with?

We have built modules to interoperate with MS's Passport system (we believe we are the only user management/billing system commercially available that does this), and various wireless gateway systems. We are available to tailor Jet to your specific requirements, including writing modules for supporting other third-party systems not mentioned here.

What about provisioning? Can Jet automatically add and remove users on my *nix/NT system?

There is a clearly defined interface for hooking into account creation, status change, and billing, to trigger scripts that perform extra actions. These hooks are specifically designed to support adding and removing users from a unix (or other) system, as billing happens. We do not, however, ship with a pre-built system for managing users "on-system" - as each customer's needs in this regard is different, we prefer to provide the hooks and full support for integrating Jet with whatever you have currently. We are also available to do this integration work for you.

GRiC? iPass? Other roaming setups?

Most global roaming systems (eg. GRiC and iPass) operate at the radius level - unknown realms are forwarded by the radius server into the roaming system, and vice versa. As Jet sits "above" the radius server, making the two systems interoperate is fairly simple - ensure your radius servers are properly configured, and authentication should work. If you want to store billing data for roaming users who are using your system (for reconciliation), Jet allows for creation of a "default" realm, which will hold all usage data for roaming users on your network, provided your radius server properly forwards accounting data.

Terminology

What do you mean by realm?

A realm is essentially a single namespace of users, or a domain. The two most common uses for realms are:

A wholesale setup, where you wish to allow others to on-sell your resources - each of your customers would have their own domain name, and be able to manage their own plans/customers/etc, entirely independantly of anyone else on the system.
External authentication, where you wish to authenticate users against an external system, such as a global roaming system or a third-party radius server or MS passport.

Each realm is a completely separate space, with it's own management interface, etc. In conjunction with the branding module, this allows realms to have their own look'n'feel, their own plans, their own credit card gateway, etc. etc. - to basically be their own system. Usage within a realm is traditionally totalled up and billed against a user in the default realm, so that you can bill the owner of the realm for all usage on a plan you set yourself.

Licencing and Support

What's the deal with the licence? Do we get to see the source code?

All customers who purchase the enterprise version of the Jet billing system are provided with access to the source code. Jet Lite does not ship with source code.

What about upgrades?

Obsidian provides bugfix upgrades for free - although we will charge to install them, if you require us to install them for you. Other upgrades, to provide added functionality, may involve a fee. The licence agreement gives you a permanent licence over the code you buy, so there's no "renewal fees" to worry about.

Ongoing Support?

A support contract provides you with access to Obsidian's technical staff for day-to-day support and maintenance of the system - it does not include any new development work, but does include general administration, etc. Please contact us regarding this option, as it is priced on a per-hour basis dependant on how many hours per month you'd like to reserve. It also provides ongoing access to upgrades for any module you have purchased, as we continue to expand Jet. Bugfix upgrades are provided for free regardless of whether you take out a support contract, but installation is up to the customers unless a support contract is in place.

Functionality (Can Jet...?)

Bill traffic usage from Netflow?

Yes, Jet has a Netflow module available, which can assign traffic to users in near-real-time.

Bill other arbitrary usage data?

Yes. Jet's concept of usage data is very generic, and it is trivial to add to the number and variety of data records being billed over.

Take credit card payments online?

Yes. We have support currently for buyitonline, payment express, and directone, both of whom are Camtech resellers. If you are currently using another provider, we can either build a module to talk to that provider, or give instructions on how to build such. If you have not yet chosen a provider, we highly recommend both the above - their service has been top-notch.

Repeat-bill off credit card automatically?

No. Jet does not store credit card information anywhere in the system - consequently, we cannot automatically bill credit cards on bulk billing runs. Jet can, however, provide output containing all the details of who to bill, and a procedure can be built to merge card data with usage data for billing runs, and feed the results back into Jet. The reason we take this rather torturous path is that the majority of Australian banks expressly disallow storage of card data online. We could provide the facility - indeed, the database and system is designed to do it - but actually doing so would put some customers in breach of their Terms and Conditions, perhaps unknowingly. Thus, by default, we do not store credit card information or use it for repeat billing. If you absolutely need this facility, please call us to discuss.

UPDATE! SecurePay now support recurring credit card charging and bank account direct-debit. If you are interested in this facility, we recommend that you visit their web site at www.securepay.com.au for details about their service.