E Cafe

talk random
1

I just had a question…

I was recently in london and visited an EasyEverything web cafe. What I was curious about is how they run multiple computer monitors and keyboards etc…off of one central server…and if anyone knows who carries those kind of electronics…

thanks:sure:

2

Airport desk employee: Do you have anything to declare? Cousin Avi: Yeah, don’t go to England

wait, you’re saying there were no physical computers at the desks? just keyboards and mice?

3

That’s Right!!! He Can Be Taught!:beam:

4

are you saying i’m incompetent?

what that café probably used was something called a KVM, though i’m not exactly sure what it stands for it lets a computer be controlled through multiple keyboards and mice as well as monitors. it is like a hub. now the only problem with a KVM is that only one keyboard and mouse can control the main computer at any time.

5

you may find that it is basically a thin client.

They may use standard hardware, or they may use whats called blades (though I doubt its the last option due to cost).

A USB Connection out the front of each workspace would provide enough external functionality and some Admin options that users may require while still limiting and locking down the deskspace sufficiently.

6

no no…i wasn’t being mean, I was quoting from Aladin…but I think that there aremany routes you could go on this
I was just wondering if anyone knew the cheapest one…that would still offfer ample CPU power.

7

haha, i was just kidding. but if you want one of these things it’s not really the price you pay for it but rather whether or not you can actually use it. do you have more than 1 set of monitors, keyboards, and mice lying around?

8

thats a good point.

Why would the standard person require a setup like this? If you have more than one PC/MAC you can setup a shared internet connection and get the same thing as what they are providing in the E-cafe without having to go through all the trouble they did.

What did they do it that way for?

Overall cost, central administration capabilities, lockdown capabilities, and security. It would never be cost effective for someone at home, as the costs of licenses of the software they use and the hardware that you need would be overwhelming.

But for an e-cafe running 100 terminals, it may be an advantage.

9

Well that is actually the whole thing…right now, beyond looking at cost of the space, interior design, contractors, employees, etc etc… I was curious what a state of the art setup would be that could provide ample t1 bandwidth to let say 30 terminals

I mean, I already know that the cost is high…but if it is a difference of 1000 or 10000 then we might be talking

10

Cool, well good luck if you start it. I might point out though that a company like E-Cafe are on VERY tight budgets, and if you look through the history of E-cafe type things (ie. Internet Cafe’s) in the UK you will find that very few of even the big boys have survived past the Millenium. Thats not to say it wont work, but probably the single most important factor to take into consideration when setting up an internet cafe has to be DEMOGRAPHICS! LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

If they really were using Thin Client then you will find that they pay per seat for the license, if they are using hardware the cost is large but can be written off over time.

The Bandwidth is one of the biggest cost killers! Think about how many bums on seats you need to recoup the cost of the T1 alone per day, not to mention the additional costs of setting up and running the cafe.

Well… I dont want to put too much negative into the discussion, it may very well work out beautifully for you. Some words of advise though.

There is more to setting up an internet cafe then just space, staff etc. Insurance, Security (building security), Fire systems, Council permission/lisencing etc etc all come into it too.

11

http://cgi.techtv.com/search?query_text=KVM&section=entire+site&date_range=anytime&groupby=ungroup&x=9&y=2

12

Well unless I am missing something here, I think you will find that a KVM isn’t what he wants.

KVM’s (as I said unless there is a type I am not familiar with) do allow you to share the system but DONT allow you to use the system concurrently. That means that you cant have multiple users in the cafe at any one time and be connected sharing the same system (Video card, Processor etc etc) it in fact switches between the locations and swaps ownership of the devices rather than truely shares the devices concurrently.

correct if I am wrong.