Sybren,
I've come up with a list of features that would be nice to have. (Wish list)
Feature Wish List:
1.Administration over the Internet via web browser.
2.MySQL database to store customers prepaid account balance.
3.Customers can reserve time slots for PC's via the web.
4.Billing rate will very based on the combination of hardware and the
type of software installed on the PC. Example: The Windows PC cost the
cafe more than the Linux PC so the savings of using Linux will be passed
on the the customer. This should encourage people to give Linux a try
for surfing the web.
5.Time left in account notification via pop up to warn customer to log
out or add funds before the prepaid account is depleted.
6.Customers will receive free PC time credits for Cafe food & drink
purchases. The credit earned on purchases will be stored in the MySQL user
database.
7.Billing rate will very based on time of day Example: we can offer a
happy hour at half price that will occur during certain time of day.
8.Control the amount of band width available based on type of user
account. Example: We can reward regular users with extra band width for
downloading.
9.Disk quotas based on type of account. Example: we can provide extra
disk space for storage.
10. Smart card reader for quick login.
11. The ability to add funds to users accounts from the Internet.
Example customers can add time to their user accounts from home or work
prior to showing up at the cafe. This will allow people to just walk
the door and start surfing with out waiting in line to purchase time.
12. Free intranet terminal located inside cafe for reserving
workstation time slots adding funds to accounts.
13. I would like users to be able to use the KDE desktop and applications
that do not pose a security risk to the Cafe or its users.
Post by Sybren StuvelPost by ext2boxI would like to here from people who have seen or used Linux in an
internet cafe. I'm intreasted to see how and were they have implemented
it's use.
I haven't used it as such, but I've been planning on building some
- All personal settings are reset upon login
- Browsers are set up to use the Squid proxy running on the same
computer but as user 'squid'.
- On the same computer, iptables is installed to block all network
traffic except for the user 'squid'.
- Squid can be configured to accept network connections only from
certain users, at certain times, for certain sites etc. which will
allow you to have good control over the network access. I used this
to prevent people from downloading movies, stuff larger than two
megabyte, etc.
Post by ext2boxI've seen very little usable cafe management software out there for
Linux.
I think squid and iptables are a very nice combination. What features
do you want in "cafe management software"? Perhaps we can help you
find it. I think it's a very interesting subject, so perhaps I could
even write some software to fill in some gaps.
Sybren