S/W for Internet Cafe with ADSL

[King]

Some help needed please!

I have a ADSL512 line and Internet Cafe software and looking for software that can create members, for people that wanna prepay for e.g. 200minutes, and most importantly control the bandwith usage so that they cannot come and download a 200mb file in an hour without payment for it........othewise I'll just have to restrict flashdisk drives etc., but would prefer a usage monitoring tool. A counter on their screen with the remaining time, loging off automatically or giving option to pay for some more time will also be great.........any ideas boys???

Greatly appreciated!

Anybody out there also that have a Internet Cafe or knows someone with one will also be great!

 

[Vio]

most importantly control the bandwith usage so that they cannot come and download a 200mb file in an hour

Lol get uncapped

 

[guest2013-1]

King, I know of several software packages that might help you (this has been a passion of mine of having my own internet cafe) thing is, most of these packages DONT give you what you need.

a Custom built solution might help you there. And I am more than willing to help. PM me the "needs" you want from a package like that, what OS's you run etc, and I'll see if I can do anything for you.

 

[King]

Lol get uncapped

, I know......going to switch, but then I still have a problem! If one or 2 guys does this at same time, it will slow down the line immensly and influence the other users/clients and reflect bad on my business....which is oraait, if they pay!

 

[guest2013-1]

Lol get uncapped

If uncapped delivered stable usable speeds during business hours, I think it would have been an option for him. But it isn't, and because he is a business operating (normally) during business hours. I'd stay far away from uncapped.

What I might suggest to him is to check his bandwidth usage every day. Work out an average bandwidth per user (you need stats like that) and figure out how much bandwidth he'd need to get him through a month of "peak" usage (meaning, take his busiest month of the year) and get something like that.

I have a crapload of ideas. I could probably up King's profitablity by 50% over 6 - 12 months no problem.

 

[guest2013-1]

, I know......going to switch, but then I still have a problem! If one or 2 guys does this at same time, it will slow down the line immensly and influence the other users/clients and reflect bad on my business....which is oraait, if they pay!

ah, I see now what you need, gimme a few minutes to look for something that might help you out alot here...

 

[King]

If uncapped delivered stable usable speeds during business hours, I think it would have been an option for him.

Yip, I can vouch for that......have a Uncapped ADSL line at other location, which is oraait for browsing, but the download speed is almost a fifth at times.

 

[King]

NOONE.......thanks, awaiting your respone

 

[viceroy]

Something which might help would be a piece of software which would limit each PC to say 64kb/s, which sufficient for most gaming and download purposes. This would allow you to have 8 PC's running without killing the bandwidth

 

[guest2013-1]

Check your PM King

 

[King]

Something which might help would be a piece of software which would limit each PC to say 64kb/s,

O yes.......also a good idea, I know I have looked for something like that about a year ago for internet sharing between two offices, but haven't found appropriate software......anything you know about?

 

[King]

Check your PM King

Sorry Noone.....I KNOW.......THIS IS RIDICULOUS, but what does PM means....previous mail, previous message???? Haven't give it much though in the past and also didn't needed to, till NOW!

 

[swordfish1]

The most appropriate way of handling this is using a linux gateway box and setting up iptables to count the traffic per machine on the network. You can also limit and prioritise the bandwidth available to each box. Some software can be writen on top of that to do the maths and keep a log of what's going on ...

it is a bit complicated to setup, but that is the best way to do it properly

windows is inferior for thins like that

 

[swordfish1]

Sorry Noone.....I KNOW.......THIS IS RIDICULOUS, but what does PM means....previous mail, previous message???? Haven't give it much though in the past and also didn't needed to, till NOW!

PM = Private Message, link at the top right corner of this screen

 

[guest2013-1]

swordfish1 is l33t y0

 

[King]

windows is inferior for thins like that

I know a little about Linux, but have been considering it strongly to learn more about Linux this last few months, seeing that it is either free or cheap and all the free and cheap software you can get for it + , as you mentioned, appears that Linux have alot more network/internet handy tools and utilities.

It also don't require strong machines to setup as server.....reliable......not so vulnerible and/or targeted with viruses/worms.......straight forward (what you type, is what you get), as with Windows......you do one click and a millions different things happen in the background...etc,etc,etc.

It will take some time to semi-master, but all good things comes to those who wait........right!!!

 

[swordfish1]

It will take some time to semi-master, but all good things comes to those who wait........right!!!

Not wait ... learn

It may look like a bit of a pain at the begining, but once it is working, it is working, forever! So the effort pays off. When it comes to networking and servers, linux is uncomparable to windows!

google "iptables", "ip accounting" and "bandwidth shaping", install some distro with some recent kernel (must be > 2.6) and there you go ... you can setup even a transparent proxy for http so the customers don't download the same page or file 100 times, also caching DNS is quite cool, it will make DNS resolution somehow quicker, although it is quick enough on ADSL anyway.

 

[rburley]

One of my friends have a internet cafe and they gr8 software, I cant remember the name but when I go there again I will check it out for you

 

[King]

One of my friends have a internet cafe and they gr8 software, I cant remember the name but when I go there again I will check it out for you

Thanks, will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Turtle]

you can setup even a transparent proxy for http so the customers don't download the same page or file 100 times

For a very 'controlled' LAN like an Internet Cafe, it doesn't need to be a transparent proxy, a regular proxy will do (unless you are letting people bring their laptops and connect via wireless.) A good Linux proxy is squid (runs on Mac OS X and Windows too).