Internet Cafe software

aaf

Gonna be setting up a temp Internet Cafe and am looking for software to run it. I've downloaded CyberLeader and it seems to be good. Costs about $180. Just wondering is there a better alternative. All I want is for the sales person to be able to hand out a timecode which gives the user say 15 mins upon login. Anybody got any experience of such software? Any recommendations?

AARRRGH

Can't help you unfortunately, but I'm interested in hearing more about your "temp Internet Cafe".

I've always wanted to start an Internet Cafe

What's you plan, if you don't mind me asking?

Webmonkey

Well if you want to go hardware way you could get the Dlink DSA-3100 with the DSA-3100p Printer.
System is all wireless. A login page will load up on computers where they can enter their code they get from the admin using the 3100p printer.
not the cheapest though for a temp cafe

aaf

Setting one up for my company in the RDS at the end of August. Will be picking up broadband wirelessly inside the RDS and I'll also be setting up a wired network to run the Internet Cafe software. I have all the hardware I need, pc's, network laser printers, switches, routers, wireless equip. Just looking for advice on the software to use.

monkeyfudge

I have an internet café.

I use a device called the Chronos iBox. It's basically a router that blocks any internet access from a computer connected to it unless it has a valid username and password typed in.

The usernames and passwords are generated by the iBox itself and are printed out on a small till reciept and can be set for different prices for different periods of time.

The system probably cost around €1500 to put in place though. So it might not be what you are looking for.

Webmonkey

monkeyfudge wrote:

I have an internet café.

I use a device called the Chronos iBox. It's basically a router that blocks any internet access from a computer connected to it unless it has a valid username and password typed in.

The usernames and passwords are generated by the iBox itself and are printed out on a small till reciept and can be set for different prices for different periods of time.

The system probably cost around €1500 to put in place though. So it might not be what you are looking for.

sorry for taking over here but Monkeyfudge I may be interested in your solution. Would you be able to send me on more information about your products and setup.

Cheers man

aaf

monkeyfudge wrote:

I have an internet café.

I use a device called the Chronos iBox. It's basically a router that blocks any internet access from a computer connected to it unless it has a valid username and password typed in.

The usernames and passwords are generated by the iBox itself and are printed out on a small till reciept and can be set for different prices for different periods of time.

The system probably cost around €1500 to put in place though. So it might not be what you are looking for.

Yeah, a little pricey but it's what I'm looking for. The CyberLeader software is alot cheaper though and pretty much does the same thing - generates timecodes, prepaid codes etc. Doesn't print them though although you can export the codes to excel or txt file or MS Access and print from there.

monkeyfudge

Yeah... I'll have to have a look into the Cyberleader software myself.

I was just trying to find some more info on the iBox 5000 there on web and there doesn't seem to be much about it at all any more. There is no mention whatsoever on the Chronos website. So sorry about that, Webmonkey.

You can read a little bit about my internet café here

It's not the ideal way to run an internet café anyway. It's just I don't really have any staff to dedicate to the place so the pre-paid system was the only way to go.

I use a piece of very useful software called 1st Security Agent. Which is great for locking out all the windows functions that you don't want people accessing.

Webmonkey

Do you think if I phone up those GV Distribution guys up they'd give me info?

monkeyfudge

Webmonkey wrote:

Do you think if I phone up those GV Distribution guys up they'd give me info?

I ran GV Distribution's website through the WayBackMachine from archive.org and got the information page:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040219053318/http://www.gvd.ie/ibox5000.htm

angelofdeath

we use cyber cafe pro, costs about 400-500 euro, good system can't complain about it other than it affects the detection of most usb devices connected to the pc, so if anyone wants to use a pendrive i have to set their machine to windows, other than that it works a treat

edit:// btw it does timecodes

Webmonkey

monkeyfudge wrote:

I ran GV Distribution's website through the WayBackMachine from archive.org and got the information page:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040219053318/http://www.gvd.ie/ibox5000.htm

Thanks man

kjt

I think your might be interested in this.
I use this everyday. Absolutly brilliant program, never one problem with it


Easycafe

aaf

CyberLeader still seems to be the best option imo. It's cheaper than the rest and it does everything I want it to.

Rollo Tamasi

angelofdeath, I would be interested in finding out more about Internet Cafe's.Would you able to tell us what is the setup you currently have regarding hardware? How many pc's do you have, what OS do you run on the PC's. All that kind of thing.....

chump

Cheap way to do...
First of all obviously set up admin and user account on each machine.
Under admin disable Simple firesharing and go in and disable write access to everything on the machine.
Get Dougs Security Console
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
Get full version

Log on to your admin account, disable pretty much everything on the user account through dougs secutiry console.

And there ya go!

I did this to my brothers log on in one of my machines and it worked very well. Just remember people will be browsing with IE, don't put Firefox on there... Rem to delete all their start menu & desktop icons as well.

aaf

chump wrote:

Cheap way to do...
First of all obviously set up admin and user account on each machine.
Under admin disable Simple firesharing and go in and disable write access to everything on the machine.
Get Dougs Security Console
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
Get full version

Log on to your admin account, disable pretty much everything on the user account through dougs secutiry console.

And there ya go!

I did this to my brothers log on in one of my machines and it worked very well. Just remember people will be browsing with IE, don't put Firefox on there... Rem to delete all their start menu & desktop icons as well.

Not the ideal solution as you need to be able to use timecodes and pre/post paid codes/services. That CyberLeader software I was looking at does a good job of locking down the machine anyway. That Dougs Security Console could come in handy for other things though, cheers.

SouperComputer

have a look on sourceforge.net for open source stuff, also hot spot software could work as it all comes through the switch anyay.

angelofdeath

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

angelofdeath, I would be interested in finding out more about Internet Cafe's.Would you able to tell us what is the setup you currently have regarding hardware? How many pc's do you have, what OS do you run on the PC's. All that kind of thing.....

we have twenty dell computers(not my choice, i only work here), 15" tft's cd-rw's geforce4mx, nothing spectacular, all running win xp home, all have a juztreboot pci card that holds a kind of image of the harddrive so that when the computers are restarted they all revert to a previously saved state, so we don't have to worry too much about harmfull stuff going on the computers

em, hardware firewall, an eircom 2meg line and an esat 2meg backup all networked to a colour and black and white printers

microsoft office on three computers, openoffice on the rest (i personally wouldn't bother with microsoft office, no-one has ever complained), then the usual other stuff msn, yahoo messenger etc etc, steam, quake3, unreal 2003, ET etc

we also have three voip telephone boothes, but i won't bore you with that, also do western union money transfers, tbh i remember when we just had computers, those were the days, could just sit back and relax

SouperComputer

all have a juztreboot pci card that holds a kind of image of the harddrive so that when the computers are restarted they all revert to a previously saved state, so we don't have to worry too much about harmfull stuff going on the computers

yea Ive used one called a "magic card" very cool. Automatic ghost on bootup.......without waiting!

angelofdeath

yeah, never really have to worry bout viruses, but it has it's drawbacks, mainly programs that require regular updates, steam being the main culprit, if you don't keep them updated the size of the update needed every day gets bigger and bigger, the last time i updated steam was about a month ago, now anyone wanting to play it needs to wait about 15-20 minutes for it to update, because im a lazy b*stard who couldn't be arsed regularly staying back after work to do updates