How To Setup a Cyber Cafe - Page 3

Putting It All Together

Assuming that you have the SSM(Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia) registered, your license have been approved by Majlis Daerah or Majlis Perbandaran(Malaysia), its time to put it all together.

Color theme for your shop.

I recommend you to use color theme which you've learned in secondary school. In my opinion, warm colors like orange, red, yellow and white is suitable for Cyber Cafes. The above Cyber Cafe uses a nice warm color theme. The carpet is green like orange, the wall is dark orange, the desk is bright white and yellow. Nice eh? Put on posters on the blank wall. Well, if you want..

Placements

For starters, I recommend you to place all your PCs one row near the wall as seen on the above picture. This way, you can hide away your messy wire especially network cables.

Your network switch is preferably to place it near the cashier table. This is because if you can't connect to certain PC or problems with the network, you can always check the blinking light on the network switch. Also, if you don't have the case protecting for your network switch, its better to secure the network switch near you. You can hide messy network cables this way too ^_^.

It is better for the cashier's desk is placed near the door. Its easy to monitor all people who went in and out. And most importantly, your customers wont run out easily without paying ^_^. As a service counter too, you should be placed in front too right?

For Aircond air flow, it is important for you to place it in a high place. The cold air goes down and the hot air goes up. Place it above the entrance door or other suitable places. Remember! Fan+aircond doesn't goes well.

Ok, now lets setup up the PCs and the Server.

The PC's system and software

You may want to check out these article on "How to build your own PC","How to setup a Computer Network" and "Simple Tweak for Your PC and Maintenance" before you continue.

After setting up your PC and Network, its time to put on the juice in your PCs. The software. Here is the list of a good software and games for Cyber Cafe.

Computer Maintenance
Acronis True Image - Check out this software. "Acronis True Image. The Guide"
Avira Antivirus(free)
Matrix Screen Locker (only for server)
Spyware Terminator (scan only)
Norton Utilities (Not Antivirus ok?)

Softwares
Microsoft Office
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Java Runtime - Many websites nowadays needs Java Runtime to run its script
Latest DirectX 9
Winamp
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
Izarc - File compression/decompression freeware

Multiplayer PC Games
Counter Strike
Half Life 1 & 2
Halo
Battle Realms
Street Racing Syndicate
Unreal Tournament
Warcraft - The Frozen Throne
FIFA 2008
Worms World Party
Command & Conquer - Zero Hour

Online Games
Ragnarok Online with EuphRO 332 rate & Trinity add-ons(free Ragnarok Online)
World Of Warcraft Online
Ran Online
Tales Of Pirates Online
Mo Siang Online

Issue about Internet Browser

On first use, Install the Flash Player or youtube will be malfunction. Some of government website requires Internet Explorer browser. Eww..

The Server

You can use either Win9x or WinXP for server. But for many reasons and stability, use Windows XP and upgrade your Pentium 2 PC with at least 256MB of RAM(memory). Install the Server software and then install the client on each PC in your Cyber Cafe. You need to insert the IP address for each PC. I'll write a guide about ecafepro later.

Continue to Page 4