Hello Malibu,
I will take the questions in order and provide a variety of references
for those as well as some related information.
1. Specification of the PC (email, browsing, ++gaming?)
Choices made here are going to affect answers to a few of the other
questions. You have a range of solutions including:
- "thin clients"; generally characterized by low cost, ease to
update, but less capable
- PC's; may be repackaged to be more rugged or resistant to damage
- higher end PC's; for the gamers, perhaps at a premium price
As a few examples, let me point you to the hardware descriptions of a
few existing cafe's including:
http://www.uninet.gliwice.pl/en/sprzety.php
Uninet - a dozen PC's ranging from 333 Mhz Celerons to 1200 Mhz Durons
http://www.web13.co.uk/hardware.shtml
Web13 - two dozen "multimedia Pentium PC's", two iMac's
http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/src/kiosk/
http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/remodeling.html
DNA Lounge - a bar / dance club that has flatscreen kiosks (diskless
Linux machines), also offers instructions for their setup and their
software free. A few other pages describe hardware that runs "behind
the scenes" for the streaming video and internet access they provide.
There are also vendors selling preassembled kiosks; see the link under
#2's answer or search for
kiosk
with google (at least the US one...) and a number of vendors will
appear on the right.
The general search phrase I used for this answer was
internet cafe hardware
plus I already knew about the DNA Lounge from various postings when it
was set up about a year ago.
2. What other hardware do I need?
Part of this answer depends on what kind of machines (answer to #1)
and the services you provide. Will you provide business services (e.g,
FAX, printer, copier), food services (drinks, snacks, meals), or more
of an entertainment kind of venue (music, stage entertainment). There
is a lot of variability and I suggest a clarification request to get a
more focused answer to this question.
At a minimum, you need:
- inteface between firewall machine(s) and ISP point(s) of presence
(e.g., T1 interface)
- router / firewall / NAT
- local LAN behind firewall including
o network switch
o "server" (to provide services used by other machines)
o workstations for users
o other devices (printer, etc.)
- [optional] a second LAN with your office systems on it
o point of sale equipment
o database server (?)
and so on.
For a few suggested hardware suites, I will provide a few vendor links
including:
http://www.apunix.com/kiosk_products/thin_client1.html
a thin client solution ($3000 server, $300 clients)
3. Best way to connect to the Internet?
It has been described in several places that getting more than one
connection to more than one ISP is a good practice. Your router /
firewall can spread the traffic to the ISP that has the best
performance (at that time) of if you want, or establish different
quality of service levels for your cusomters. You also need to get
enough performance from the data links to support your needs.
Allocating say 30-50 kbaud per machine would imply one or more T1
links (1.5 Mbit/sec each) to satisfy the needs of 100 machines. That
may be *very* expensive - a trial with a dozen machines one a more
modest link would be a good test prior to getting a high cost line.
A good online reference is at
http://www.nextep.com.au/pdf/Firewall_Architecture.PDF
which shows a suggested firewall architecture, showing the ISP access
as well as dividing the machines behind the firewall into four zones
(some for public access, one called "finance" to keep that data safe,
and so on).
A good search phrase to find more references is
network firewall architecture
which provides a number of good references. Add the name of the vendor
you select for your network gear to get focused information on that
product.
Getting ratings of an ISP appears to be pretty tough. I found a couple
sites that appear to collect such data including:
http://1stnova.com/Directory/Web_Hosting/Web_Hosting_by_Location/AU_ISP_Hosting/
http://www.cynosure.com.au/isp/@ratings
but neither show any results. I did find a pair of sites...
http://www.adslusers.com.au/
http://www.cableusers.com.au/index.php
which have references and "ratings" for both ADSL and cable suppliers
respectively. In the ADSL listing especially, a number of vendors also
have no ratings so the effectiveness may not be as good as desired. It
may however allow you to avoid a bad supplier - or get one that is
good enough to get a good rating.
4. Best operating system?
It depends on what you are trying to do. It also depends upon the
experience of your staff to maintain the machines. Most games are
going to be supported by some version of Microsoft Windows. If all you
want to do is browse the Internet or get email, a Linux PC would do
just as well and cost less. Some software is best on a Macintosh.
Going to a few of the referenced sites,
http://www.uninet.gliwice.pl/en/cennik.php
shows pricing for browsing separate from Linux access (as well as
burning CD's, etc.)
http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/src/kiosk/
uses Linux plus some of their own software
http://www.web13.co.uk/facilities.shtml
appears to use Microsoft products extensively.
Basically, software availability will force the situation. You may
want to provide a variety of machines if you can support it. Then
based on usage of the systems, adjust which ones and how many of each
type is on what operating system.
5. Where to find out more?
As the first comment already notes - you should talk to someone
already in the business. The local facilities in Melbourne may not (or
may be...) a good choice since they may want to avoid competition, but
there are plenty of sites in the world that may provide guidance. A
few suggestions include:
http://www.netcafeguide.com/countries/australia2.html#Melbourne
a list of internet cafe's in Australia, the page should go directly to
the Melbourne entries, but scroll to find other locations.
http://www.netcafeguide.com/tipsandtricks.html
to get an idea of what a customer may consider important
http://www.bigmagic.com/
a link near the bottom has their email address to get further
information (perhaps trying to get people to pay a fee to get advice).
http://www.quicknet.net/reseller/unqualified.htm
rather than repeating the links here, the lower right of the page has
a number of references to business plans, franchise opportunities,
suggested software items, and so on.
6. How to combine cafe and yield / revenue management software?
There are some commercial products that claim to aid in the management
of the internet (or cyber) cafe). These include:
http://www.cybermonitor.net/CyberMonitor/index.htm
talks about a number of reports and "income protection" (not quite
sure what that means)
http://www.htmagazine.com/archive/April2001/April2001_5.html
an article from Hospitality Technology magazine, describing yield
management software used at the Hard Rock Cafe and Applebees (two
restraunt chains in the USA).
You may also want to get software that integrates cleanly with your
point of sale (POS) solution as well. I would also suggest a
clarification request that describes more clearly the options you are
considering so I can do more focused research.
Other comments / suggestions.
You may be able to adapt some other yield based software (e.g., for a
hotel) that has concepts such as "load management" or promotions to
boost sales. For example:
http://www.idealyield.com/yield.html
which appears to be a pretty comprehensive solution (has a three week
training course!) and my be "too much" for now but something to
consider later.
Another article on yield / price management
http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:oRI3gvxbCc8C:mysite.freeserve.com/ThePriceMan2/page1.html+revenue+yield+management+cafe&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
(this is from Google's cache - the original appears to have
disappeared. There also appears to be five parts, though I could not
get all five parts to display for me).
Please use a clarification request if you want me to expand on one of
these points or answer an additional question related to this topic.
--Maniac |
