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Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
Internet Cafe
- Thread starter Mokusei
- Start date
Peon
Expert Member
Transparently.
Whatever solution you use, it needs to be transparent requiring very little input from the customer. Many cafes make this mistake in my opinion.
You can use something like CoovaChilli. Or go for complete transparency with something like ClearOS(better than untangle imo) I wouldnt worry about the consoles, the PC's and Mac you want to be suspicious of. There is no manual describing how a user can f-up a pc sometimes.
With ClearOS you can have so much control over their session, but give the client what they want.
Whatever solution you use, it needs to be transparent requiring very little input from the customer. Many cafes make this mistake in my opinion.
You can use something like CoovaChilli. Or go for complete transparency with something like ClearOS(better than untangle imo) I wouldnt worry about the consoles, the PC's and Mac you want to be suspicious of. There is no manual describing how a user can f-up a pc sometimes.
With ClearOS you can have so much control over their session, but give the client what they want.
Peon
Expert Member
ClearOS could be your gateway, a dedicated box with 2 network cards. One network card goes to the internet and the other dishes out IP's on the local network. All network devices will route through it. See, why I say its transparent is that you wont need to install any 'filtering' software on the PC's. Sure you could put timer utilities and such to control time usage. But you need to be wary of unsavory characters abusing your internet. P2P apps will be the least of your worries.
If I had to setup a cafe I would use ClearOS and CoovaChilli as an example. ClearOS will be the bouncer and CoovaChilli the bar tender.
Oh CoovaChilli is also a linux based OS consuming a dedicated box. The good news is you dont need high end hardware. Entry level pentium 4 will do the trick.
If I had to setup a cafe I would use ClearOS and CoovaChilli as an example. ClearOS will be the bouncer and CoovaChilli the bar tender.
Oh CoovaChilli is also a linux based OS consuming a dedicated box. The good news is you dont need high end hardware. Entry level pentium 4 will do the trick.
Peon
Expert Member
Just google the HOWTO's. You will find plenty on ClearOS, here is one for CoovaChilli
CoovaChilli might seem like a mountain, so take maybe 3 days and complete section for section.
CoovaChilli might seem like a mountain, so take maybe 3 days and complete section for section.
Y'all Qaeda
Username approved by US Airforce
That sounds great. I'm checking out the software as I type. Thanks!
EDIT: Okay, just read up on this software. I found that ClearOS is as states; an OS, albeit a Linux distro. Now would that be deployed as a server or what? Give me a picture of the infrastructure.
I'm talking high quality though, not some 15" CRT centre. As in a place where teens can rent the place over weekends and LAN there or work on projects, play console games, do research on 10MB line, etc. I wouldn't want to skimp. I now have a Mac, but at a time when I didn't, I would've given anything to learn how to use OS X and discover something other than Windows, yet no Internet cafe could give me that option. I want to be able to provide every basic technological learning opportunity in this place.
That means I need software that will run on >= OS X 10.6 and >= Windows 7.
And linux? No offence, but for an internet cafe to be attractive, it really needs to be better than what I or any of friends have.. And I really doubt any internet cafe has that type of budget..