anyone have any experience with internet cafe software?

Dynamic · 06-04-2006, 03:56 AM

The software that I am using is SmartLaunch (www.smartlaunch.com) i was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it, before i go out and call denmark (their support office) which will cost an arm and a leg....

basically hooking up 22 computers, right now 12 of the 22 are working properly, the other 10 can communicate with the server fine, authenticate the client ok, they will just not list any of the installed programs on the omputers them selves. I have posted questions on their forums, no response yet, and only 5 views (posted 12 hours ago). I have made sure that windows updates have been done to all of the PCs, windows firewall is turned off, they are all connected to the same switch..... they werent originally, but i figured i would see if plugging them all into the same 24 pot switch would help.....nope. I have restarted the computers numerous times, the server too, as well as release/renew/flushdns on each of the machines. I really like to get this working right .... its free this weekend, so we just have the computers unlocked and they can do whatever..... after close, found one of the computers with lime wire .... and i really don't want that crap going on. i will prollly have to reformat that comp now cause of spyware...dumbass people.

over the past 2 days we have been open (grand opened friday and saturday) we did manage to get and move in and out around 200-300 people (no hourly rates for fri/sat, sun = 5$ all day pass) we already have people that have sined up for yearly memberships which will give them access to discounted hourly rates (5$ instead of 7$) , more points accumulated in our points program once we get it up and running, and 10% off most merch we will be selling (www.dandh.com). I would really like getting this to work sooner rather than later, if worse comes to worse i will have to call their tech support and prolly get charged up the *** for long distance ... thank god i dont have to call from my phone .. haha

one other question about Wake on LAN, the server actually has the option to turn on the computers from its off state. Only 6 of the 22 computers work with WOL, and i was wondering if there is a nother solution to that, im going to flash the bios when i get time tomorow.... hmmm

dudio · 06-04-2006, 11:59 PM

sorry man .. no idea

LoPo · 06-05-2006, 12:20 AM

Call tech support.

spOOky · 06-05-2006, 02:25 AM

Man, I can't remember the last time I had to do that....oh wait...it was two years ago for some credit card machine or something.

I hate when that happens. Try some looking for some other forums first maybe?

Soul · 06-05-2006, 08:31 AM

Dynamic, if you turn one of the working 12 off can one of the 10 non working connect?

Mac · 06-05-2006, 08:48 AM

just to be sure be sure the bios version is all the same with the machines and that the in bios stats show the WOL to be working.

d-fragger · 06-05-2006, 08:46 PM

Dyn
Go out and buy a copy of Norton Ghost, high end would be $50 but it will pay for itself in a week. Your going to have people surfing on your machines to sites they would no go to at home,d/l Active x controls and settings that hose your profiles etc. You're going to have lots of machines to image. Out of 130 machines in production I a week would not go by were we did not re-images 5 of them or more.

After you have ghost make an image of a PC that is working excaly the way you want and reimage a PC that is not. If the problem lies in the BIOS you will have proof posiive if it works fine then you issuse lies elsewhere but re-image the remaining machines and you problem is solved. We used Altris but that is an expensive solution Ghost will do the same thing for cheaper and a bit more footwork.

Good Luck.

LoPo · 06-05-2006, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d-fragger

Dyn
Go out and buy a copy of Norton Ghost, high end would be $50 but it will pay for itself in a week. Your going to have people surfing on your machines to sites they would no go to at home,d/l Active x controls and settings that hose your profiles etc. You're going to have lots of machines to image. Out of 130 machines in production I a week would not go by were we did not re-images 5 of them or more.

After you have ghost make an image of a PC that is working excaly the way you want and reimage a PC that is not. If the problem lies in the BIOS you will have proof posiive if it works fine then you issuse lies elsewhere but re-image the remaining machines and you problem is solved. We used Altris but that is an expensive solution Ghost will do the same thing for cheaper and a bit more footwork.

Good Luck.

Actually you would want some sort of centralizedserver control with policy settings in effect to prohibit installation of items such as this.

Also you'd probably want to automatically reimage them on boot up, most likely would be daily.

Central management is the key to the game. There are a number of vendors out there that will provide the auto imaging, auto refresh, etc on boot up. It will cost you, but long term it will save you money and downtime. Altiris and the likes thereof come to mind.

Psycho Nitro · 06-06-2006, 02:11 AM

From his original post he mentioned that since it was a free weekend they had the machines unlocked.

Most cafe software will not allow you to install junk on the machine. Then when the person is done with whatever they do the machine goes right back to the original state.

d-fragger · 06-06-2006, 09:33 PM

Three things

Lopos right (cost may outweigh benefit) We had what Lopo descibed Centrilized server ran billing and profiles. Altiris was AWWWSOOMMEEE, since you could console it formt he server to start then instruct the scripts to run any secondary installation, the whole became so automated that we just set up the jobs and never touched the boxes. However, cost is a huge consideration especally for a internet cafe that is charging $5 - $7. You have to sell 7 of those just to buy one client licence. That is why I suggested ghost a little more foot work but you can build up a library of DVD images to boot from and just swap them in as needed.

If possible use Mandatory profiles this again goes back to what Lopp was saying about centralized file servers but you can make it work without.

and regardsless of how many protections you put on a PC, and how much time you want to spend doing it, you will always be outwitted by somthing.

For almost 8 years I was the Admin for what we considered the best of breed Internet Cafe. It is still open and for a time was the cafe that most everything was copied off of as far as I know it is the oldest internet cafe in the US.