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Cyper Internet Cafe
Cyper Internet Cafe
This is the most basic requirement for an Internet Cafe as a reference. However, every Internet
Cafe or Gaming Center have their special requirement.
Hardware needed
1. 20 x Client PCs
2. 1 x PC to control Clients a.k.a Server
2. 1 x 24 ports Switch (or Hub?)
3. 1 x Modem with built-in Router because it is easier to have modem with built-in router
(broadband modem).
5. 1 x Printer - any brand
6. 1 x Scanner - any brand
7. 20 x USB extender (If only the USB ports are in the back)
Server PC x 1 units
Not so important, at least can run cyber cafe management software is good enough. But more
number of clients means higher specification needed.
Softwares in Clients
Most needed application by customers. It is important to have the same applications on all the
clients system to minimum maintenance job.
Softwares in Server
Preferably the same with clients, because it is easier to troubleshoot problem if something happen.
Games to Choose
These are the most wanted games in the Internet Cafe or Gaming Center.
1. Half-Life, Half-Life2
2. Conter Strike
3. Need For Speed Underground 1 & 2
4. Warcraft 3
5. Doom 3
6. Everquest2
7. Galaxy LightSpeed
8. Halo for PC
9. Star Wars Galaxies
10. Battlefield 1942
11. Secret Weapons and Vietnam
12. Rise of Nations
13. Home World 2
14. Solider of Fortune
15. City of Heroes
16. Final Fantasy XI
17. Command and Conquer
18. Midtown Madness 1 & 2
19. Bass Fishing
20. House of the Dead 1 & 2
CONNECTING ALL HARDWARES IN INTERNET CAFE
All the hardwares need to be connected each other to the Local Area Networking (LAN), to enable
them share one internet line to get connected to the Internet. This is a basic idea on how to
connect all your hardware to the LAN.
In these article I assume that all PCs have been completely installed with Windows 98 operating
system and using static IP Address instead of dynamic IP (DHCP) for each system because
CCAutoSoft cyber cafe management software currently only support static IP Address.
Click "OK" button, and restart PC. The computer will be ready to get connected once it is restarted.
Do the same to other PC.
Cabling/Wiring
Commonly use cables are co-ax and cat5 with RJ-45 and BNC connector. Most of new NIC only
support RJ-45 connector, so we use Cat5 (also called 10BaseT) cable. Other then RJ-45 connector
and Cat5 cable, you also need a crimping tool. Measure the length from the client to the switch,
perhaps a little bit longer. Cut the cable and crimp RJ-45 connector at both of the cable end. The
next step is the easiest part, put one end of the cable into the client's NIC port and the other end
at the switch/hub's port. You have to make another 20 cables if you have 20 units of clients with 1
unit of server. Connect all 20 PCs, PC Server and the modem/router to the hub/switch and connect
a phone line to the modem/router.
Sharing a Printer
Usually, a printer is connected to the server PC, so the internet cafe staff can easily manage
printing process whether from clients or by walk in customer. Configure network neighborhood
properties of the server to share printer, this will let printer sharing with the LAN. After install the
printer driver into the server, make it shared. "Add printer" at each client by browsing in the LAN
and find shared printer at the server.
Connecting A Scanner
Scanner needs to be connected to a PC to operate. Connect it to a client if you prefer customers to
use the scanner themselves, or connect it to the server if you want the cyber cafe staff to scan for
your customers.
Conclusion
Now we have finished build a LAN with 20 units of PC, a printer and a scanner, which sharing
single phone line to connect to the internet. This is just a brief idea on how to connect all
hardwares in a cyber cafe.
THE NEED FOR R E B O O T -A N D - R E S T O R E S O F T W A R E / H A R D W A R E
Currently, there are not many good reboot-and-restore software in the market. I can only name
two of it. Deepfreeze and Norton GoBack. And in hardware category, I only found one that is
JuztReboot. With DeepFreeze, you have the choice to freeze partition while Norton GoBack only
could freeze one hard disk. But Norton Goback run much faster and smoother than DeepFreeze
which require more fast and high end desktop. On the other hand, you need to by JuztReboot card
to use JuztReboot function.
Symantec’s Norton GoBack™ 4.0 allows you to easily undo PC problems. Restore your PC to a
healthy state by going back minutes, hours, or even days (depending on available disk space).
Also use Norton GoBack to restore files that have been deleted or modified, and to try new
software safely.
Deep Freeze is the standard in bulletproof disk protection. Deep Freeze instantly protects and
preserves baseline computer configurations. No matter what changes a user makes to a
workstation, simply restart to eradicate all changes and reset the computer to its original state -
right down to the last byte. Expensive computer assets are kept running at 100% capacity and
technical support time is reduced or eliminated completely. The result is consistent trouble-free
computing on a truly protected and parallel network, completely free of harmful viruses and
unwanted programs.
How about Windows System Restore? Windows System Restore could be found on Windows XP
and Windows Me. It only can restore Windows files and it’s registry. It cannot disinfect virus,
trojan or spyware from the desktop. In fact, the virus may be accidentally backed up because of
this feature. It is good enough to solve light error related to Windows application. However, it is
save to disable the System Restore if you are using DeepFreeze of Norton GoBack.
System Restore is designed to automatically monitor and record changes made to the core
Windows system files and to the registry. System Restore can then allow you to undo (or "roll
back") a change that caused instability in your system. This is accomplished by periodically
recording a "Restore Point" (or System CheckPoint) that gives you the ability to roll your system
back to the point in time when your computer was known to function properly.
State A : Just finished install and configure the Windows XP, MS Office and other application in a
desktop PC.
State D : After sometime (may be after an hour, a day, a week or a month), the desktop got some
problems or sign of virus or may be a registry error. The problem could be repair by using the
anti-virus (if it is a virus infection) or windows scanreg (if it is a registry error). How about if the
desktop still keeps showing the same problem again and again? So, it is an unrecoverable error in
the desktop. The hard way to solve the problem is to reformat the hard disk and reinstall Windows
and other application all over again. But fortunately, there is the reboot-and-restore application
was installed. So just use the reboot-and-restore application to restore to State C. It only needs a
couple of seconds to finished, and after that the desktop is a new as it just formatted. But beware!
All files created after the state C will be deleted, and modified files will return to before it is
modified.
Other advantage of using the reboot-and-restore application is the customers will not have any
privacy issue. All of their work, documents, history and files in the desktop will be deleted
automatically every time the desktop is rebooted.
Conclusion
When a customer comes in, the internet cafe staff writes the customer's name and the start time
in a book. When they finish, search for his name on the book and calculate the usage charge by a
calculator. How will your customer know whether the calculation is correct? How do they confident
they are not being cheated? I have a friend who banned one cyber cafe in his entire life because
he was asked to pay for what he did not use. He believed that he only use the computer in half an
hour, but the staff shows him the book that he had used it for almost three hours! Isn't it
ridiculous? Even though, your staff calculates it correct, but without the right software, customers
will lose confident in your internet cafe.
Without the software, if the customer makes the payment first, cyber cafe staff needs to make
sure the customer will end the session on a right time. The staff has to tell the customer when the
session is finished by go to the customer and tell them that the time was over, and it is not
surprise that the staff always failed to do it on time. How can a staff do the work if you put twenty
to forty units of computers in the internet cafe? As a result, you need to hire two or three staffs to
do a simple job!
Every internet cafe may have some experience with bad customers. How if a customer insist to
leave the computer although the time was over? What will your staff do? How if somebody is using
the computer without pay? How if a customer says that he already paid some amount, but your
staff did not write it on the book? And many more bad experience not including bad experience
with your own staff.
There are too many reason why you need a cyber café billing software (If only you are running the
internet café business). Most of the time cyber café billing systems also have many other functions
that will make thing easier to manage your internet café.
Computer Crash
The main major problem, which will certainly make your customer go away, is computer crash. It
is really frustrating for a customer if the computer they use got crash. They have to wait for reboot
or have to use another PC. And how will you assure your customer that the other PC will not
crash? If this problem is not solved, you will loose some customers.
Make sure your computers ware built by good brand of hardwares. Even though the specification
of those machines is up-to-date, the brand built is also important. Computer built by any cheap
motherboard with sound and VGA built-in will definitely crash very often. The worst case is the
computer cannot be use only after a month you start your business. You start with 30 units of PCs,
but in the end of the month you have only 20 units left! You just start your business and suddenly
you have to change 10 units of motherboards!
The best is to use branded PC, such as Dell, Compaq, Hewlet-Packard or if you got little budget,
built your own PCs by branded items such as Intel motherboard and processor, good brand of
memory and etc. Try to get the best product with your little budget, if can, increase your budget a
little. If you cannot afford it, do not install the highest end of games or software. Do not use
Windows XP. Do not install Half-Life2. Do not install Ms Office XP. But how you could compete with
other internet cafes?
Slow Computer
Another problem which will make you loose your customers. When your computer is slow, you
cannot install up-to-date software and games. You will make those PC crash often if you do that.
Although you cannot afford to buy the fastest PC for your cyber cafe, you also should not buy slow
PCs. Choose in the middle or a little bit higher than the middle. So you will not be leaved behind
by your competitors. If your targetted customers is not gamers, than you will have any problem
with slow computer. Install Win98, Firefox browser, mIRC and Ms Office 97 is good enough. But
slow computer still will make you loose in the competition.
Smoke
Do not allow smoking in your internet cafe. Smoking will only attract few customers, but avoid
more customers. As always, smokers can get into non-smoker area, but non-smoker cannot. So
we should choose the bigger number of customers. In the other hand, smoking will cause your
internet cafe stinky and dusty.
The number of computers also has major impact in your business performance. Imagine if your
internet cafe is always 100% full. Customers have to wait for their turn. Of course, you will think
this is a good sign for your business. But unfortunately, this sign will only bring your business
down. In the future, people will always thinking your internet cafe is full so they will avoid you
internet cafe and go to your competitors' internet cafes. So, to solve this problem, you must make
sure your internet cafe is always ready for more customer. Your customer will be very happy if
there is always available PC for them when they come.
Employee Problem
If you have only 10 units of PCs, manage the internet cafe yourself. You will not able to pay your
employee. If you got 20 and above unit of PCs then this is the right number to get a worker to
manage your internet cafe. You cannot handle it by yourself. Employee also can bring your
business up or down, so you must be very choosy. Some of them may cheat the amount of money
paid by the customers and give their friends to use the computer free of charge. The best solution
for managing your employee is by using the best internet cafe management software. The
software must be able to log activity of the employee and be able to detect any suspicious activity
by the logged data.
Bad Maintenance
Keyboard and mouse are the most important hardwares for your customers. Think. These two
hardwares are the only hardwares interact with your customers. Bad maintenance keyboard or
mouse will only make your customer use it for five minutes and then run away. They want the
best for what they touch and hold. A higher budget for keyboards and mouses is needed to make
sure your customers' satisfaction.
As a conclusion, you can make sure you are leading the competition if you try your best to avoid
those mistakes.