Internet Cafe Setup

Tenatious

Tenatious

Tenatious

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Joined
14 Jan 2006
Posts
243
Hello,

I have been approached by someone to find out the cost of setting up and running a small internet cafe. I'd probably suggest that there would be a maximum of ten computers all needing the ability to run games and browse the internet.

Would a server be needed to connect these machines together with the central software running off this server?

Thanks for any tips :)
 
why would anyone want to go to a internet cafe to play a game?

I'd set them up for web browsing, skype and word & excel etc etc, there is nothing worse than waiting in line for a pc when there is some kid playing a game and takes for ages to finish.
 
Well that's why I'd go to an internet cafe =D
And this would be in an area where there would be a high number of kids using the computers.

What sort of spec computer would be sufficient?

Is it just a case of networking the ten computers and server together using a switch? With the time management software being installed on the server.
 
Most EULAs don't cover internet cafes as it is considered commercial use and needs a different, more expensive license.
You don't really need a server but it might be less expensive to use a computer to run as a firewall/router/filter, something like Devil Linux would be good but it depends on the operators level of expertise, but imo if he cant use it perhaps he shouldnt be looking to start up this business.
 
You don't appear to have the first clue about how this would be set up yet someone asked you to work out costs?
 
Depends, been in a few cafes in other countries, where they have games and browsing/documents in one place, but they all easily had 20-50 machines.

It really depends on where the place is, advice would be to set it up in touristy areas where they may not have great access at where ever they are staying. Printing of documents is a good start, for that you would need a decent printer and configure a printing queue. Things like that, 10 machines... A bit rubbish really. Depends on the space available.

Quiet honestly outside tourists, rare randomers, and kids who want to play some LAN game, not sure who the customers would be in this day and age.
 
Hmmm what web filtering software are you going to use? You dont really want people goin on porn unless your'e going to call it the "fappuccino" :D
 
Are there any need for internet cafe's anymore?

Surely paying £0.50 ~ £1.00 an hour for the internet is a bit silly since internet can be had as cheap as £5 or even free with various other packages.
 
Ricochet J said:
Are there any need for internet cafe's anymore?

Surely paying £0.50 ~ £1.00 an hour for the internet is a bit silly since internet can be had as cheap as £5 or even free with various other packages.
Click to expand...

Because being able to afford an internet service is the only thing you need to get online... A lot of people still don't have computers you know.
 
Connect them all up to a central, cheap computer - numerous software packages that work well for letting people log on with time limits etc
 
Makunouchi said:
Because being able to afford an internet service is the only thing you need to get online... A lot of people still don't have computers you know.
Click to expand...

Also if you're travelling internet cafe's are VERY useful for keeping in touch.

As for web filtering I'd reccomend OpenDNS, very simple, free and requires more knowledge to circumvent than your average user would have.
All you need to do is change the DNS server IPs in the router's config and you're away!
 
The time managment will probably require some sort of client agent on the machines, but I dont think you will need a "server" level of hardware, just another PC with the server app installed. I dont think the app will be that punishing to require a server OS/hardware.

Anything base spec will be fine, hell, if I were doing it, i would use Thin Clients (using WSM) with a small Streaming manager server.

I dont think many people go to Cafes to play games anymore. If required I would have a couple of higher end machines linked into WSM also, so the stream their OS, and lock the users down.
 
uber soldat said:
Hmmm what web filtering software arfe you going to use? You dont really want people goin on porn unless your'e going to call it the "fappuccino" :D
Click to expand...

You say that, in a german cafe I visited once few years back, they even had quick links to some porn sites on the "desktop", they didn't have a desktop more like a local web page with the links that restricted your access to the real desctop.

It seems like a decent idea to be honest, if you display a website, and not allow any other access, ie everything runs from links on the site, less chance of people screwing things up. Plus you can control the content, not the user.

For example in a touristy oriented cafe, you can display some interesting local events, or places to visit. Basically to me, a net cafe would be a place where local people(read mainly kids, ie games) go to socialise, few people like me who despise printers could come in to print something and tourists who want to check email/write something in their blog, look up things to see locally.

So really it depends where your mate wants to open this. Personally I only been in a net cafe once to play some games, and every other time because I needed to find something out about local places if I was in astrange country. And those were many years ago, so not sure on the target audience these days.
 
I'm looking at this myself at the moment. Valve offer a café licence via steam. You just pay monthly subs for however many concurrent steam games you want to run (so say if you actively push the place for gamers you probably want 1 per box, if it's a cafe for browsing etc etc + gaming then maybe 3/4 the number of licenses:machines). A lot of the cafe control software have setup guides for use with steam (if not the valve cafe site has guides for setup). You then obviously have to buy the games on top but I belive it's normal price, the monthly subs cover the extra licensing.

For me the actual IT setup shouldn't be too hard to sort. Getting the right environment and making a decent return on the extra's is where i'm struggling to get a decent idea together. A GOOD looking cafe (not net cafe) takes about 20k to setup. The machines you want will cost about £400 each for a semi-decent gaming rig (certainly better than the vast number of people have in their homes - mid-range everything and a the cheaper end of the high-end graphics cards).

The location I have in mind for mine pretty much says I have to have a pretty smart looking place to do well, if you're able to tap a certain market so don't have to be quite so prime on location the non-computer costs might not be quite so high.

Some other idea's might be a little sponsorship from a local parts shop for cheaper/trade prices on bits. You could even carry a little of their stock (just a cabinet with bits in) for a cut of the sales.

As a question - where are you based? Might be able to pool a little on the resource/idea's front.
 
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Ricochet J said:
Are there any need for internet cafe's anymore?

Surely paying £0.50 ~ £1.00 an hour for the internet is a bit silly since internet can be had as cheap as £5 or even free with various other packages.
Click to expand...

there's one near where i live that charges £1 for 15 minutes. :eek:
 
As we're here and the members here are likely to be the "hardest" customers (as we generally all have decent kit at home):
What would you pay, per hour for a good rig (dual core 3gig/4GB ram/4870ish gfx), decent selection of new games in a city centre place that catered to gamers (with later opening hours sometimes and good nibbles/drinks on site).
I'm currently thinking around the £4 an hour mark, work out membership etc to get a decent regular user-base and discounts/deals as a result.
 
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