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HOW TO BEST MANAGE AN INTERNET CAFE? DO I NEED TO RUN A SERVER FOR THE CAFE

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GOOD DAY. I HAVE A BUSINESS FOR INTERNET CAFE. I HAVE ABOUT 50 COMPUTERS. I WAS WONDERING WHAT IS THE EASIEST WAY I CAN MANAGE THE COMPUTERS FROM ONE CENTRAL POINT. I WOULD LIKE TO BE IN A POSITION TO FIX PC PROBLEMS FROM A CENTRAL POINT. INSTALL APPLICATIONS FROM ONE CENTRAL POINT. ANYONE WITH KNOWLEDGE OR HELP FOR ME TO ACHIEVE THAT PLEASE HELP.

Topic

Clarifications

In reply to HOW TO BEST MANAGE AN INTERNET CAFE? DO I NEED TO RUN A SERVER FOR THE CAFE

Clarifications

Request for Clarification

In reply to Clarifications

Hi there,
Perhaps you could shed some light on what you already have?
Are you starting from scratch or are these machines already in place?
What is managing the system at present?
Are these machines somehow able to receive Group Policy settings (Unlikely as probably not a domain environment)?
What Operating system are you using (XP home/XP pro/Vista Home, Pro/7,8 or something else)?
What sort of budget do you have in mind… it could potentially be done for next to nothing using bits and pieces or you could have an expensive solution which could do everything you want and more.

Stop shouting. nt

In reply to HOW TO BEST MANAGE AN INTERNET CAFE? DO I NEED TO RUN A SERVER FOR THE CAFE

no text

HOW TO BEST MANAGE AN INTERNET CAFE? DO I NEED TO RUN A SERVER FOR THE CAFE

In reply to HOW TO BEST MANAGE AN INTERNET CAFE? DO I NEED TO RUN A SERVER FOR THE CAFE

Microsoft Multipoint server 2012 and then you can roll out NComputing LC300 thin clients.

Try the Linux Terminal Server Project

In reply to HOW TO BEST MANAGE AN INTERNET CAFE? DO I NEED TO RUN A SERVER FOR THE CAFE

You can read about it at http://www.ltsp.org.

Central maintenance of software, inexpensive client hardware, open source.

More options… Now we need clearer goals

In reply to HOW TO BEST MANAGE AN INTERNET CAFE? DO I NEED TO RUN A SERVER FOR THE CAFE

You have lots of options. As well as the good ones already suggested, a common scenario in an Internet cafe is to set up a standard image and to have that pushed back out to every PC overnight. During the day the machines can get crap left on them, viruses installed etc and in the morning they will be back to a perfectly clean slate. Is this what you are after?

Another option is to go with a server and to use mandatory user profiles. This does much the same as above, but locks all user settings (but the machines themselves can have changes made, like software updates).

Now you’ve got a few ideas you will need to give us some guidance:
* What’s your budget?
* Will you have IT help on-hand (to manage a server, for example)?
* Do you want full desktop PCs, or are thin clients ok?
* Would you rather let customers have some control over their PC and then wipe away their changes, or would you prefer to totally lock down the environment?

Answer some of these high-level questions and we can guide you better.

Reponse To Answer

In reply to More options… Now we need clearer goals

It seems the OP has disappeared. Shame. Looks like there are a few of us up for debating the many options.

Reponse To Answer

In reply to More options… Now we need clearer goals

Yeah, I’m surprised at how few people actually bother coming back to read what others have said in response to their question (or, at minumum, don’t bother commenting again).

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