Control de Ciber
*UPDATE*
As of 2008/06/10, there is available the last version of the CyberCafe program.
This version supports both English, Spanish and Brasilian.
Since there is now only one version of the program with several different language text files, you can expect all the latest
modifications to the program to be readily available for you in this download link from now on (till further notice).
You can get it here.
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If you are looking for a free and capable cyber cafe controlling program you are at the right place, so keep reading ...
Please note that you can still take a look at the rest of the documentation in English that is available for the program in this web site, but take in account that it was generated by using an automated English translation program.
By the way I am planning to begin translating all the documentation, and hopefully it will be easier to read than a dumb generated one.
This is a work in progress ( both the localization and the program ) so if you are interested in this program, bookmark it and keep coming, I Hope to be updating this page and the translation of the software and user manual too.
Please take note that I am not the original developer of the program, I am just helping him to deal with all the related things in it related with the English langague, which means localization and translation of the application's text, documentation and by translating users comments and giving support to English users of the program.
Having said that, I will describe for you the main points of interest of the application
CYBER CONTROL program description:
This program aims to help you in every aspect of your everyday bussisnes experience by providing you:
- An easy way to control and charge for the time your customers connect to the Internet.
- Accounting facilities.
- The computer terminals remain locked and not functional unless you activate them from the central server.
- You can send text messages to your customers either in a standalone way or to all of them at the same time.
- It warns you if a customer forgets a floppy disk in the computer (it only works under Windows 98).
- It allows you to use any image you want to be shown when the computers are blocked, thus allowing you to show your bussines logo or any other information you want.
- Helps you control your taxes.
-Lets you synchronize all the client computers with the server's system time.
-Allows you to remotely reset or shut down any computer in your local network.
- The software automatically updates from the Internet, so you have not to worry about not being using the last bug fix of the program.
- **important feature** Even if for some reason the server computer hangs you won't lose your customers time or any other billing information
- Provides an easy user interface to start,pause,and stop your customers use of the Internet. It also provides an easy way for your customer to move from one computer to another by just draging and dropping in the server program (the one you control).
- A customer has got two basic ways to control the amount of money he wishes to spend. He can either tell you that he wants to spend lets say 5 dollards, so you just wait for him to decide which is the computer of his choice and within the server software, next to the number of the computer, you just imput the amount. Once enough time has passed to serve that 5 dollards the software will automatically prompt a kind of banner in the users machine remembering him that his money is about to be over. Then the user can decide if he just wants to end it or prompt you to add more money. If he wants more you would just imput the new amount of money, same as before, if he doesn't want to spend more, once the time is over the computer will lock itself and disallow any further use of the computer. The other option would be to start up the counter with no limitations.
- You can even decide to give all or some of your clients discounts. For example, if one guy is a very good client you can just tell him that you will aply some percentage discount to all his connections. Another example would be that if your cyber is a bit down on clients for example, lets say from 3 to 5 pm, you can incentivize them by providing a 30 percent cheaper connection during that time. As always, all this kind of things are totally configurable and you just need to do it once. Your only trouble would be to look into the server program what is the amount due for them on finishing, thats all.
- You can also set a minimun amount of money to charge for very short connections like, for example people who only want to rapidly check his email account. Hence you make sure you can charge the amount of monay you find fair for that kind of short connections. Lets say you configure the program to consider any conection under 15 minutes to be a short one, if your customer makes a connection shorter than 15 min he will be charged the minimun you specified upon setting up, and if he, for some reason, just stays connected more than 15 minutes, the normal fare would be applyed. Some other examples are shown in this table below:
time currency
---- --------
00:15 - 0,75 -> if the user stays connected 15 or less minutes he will be charged 75 cents.
00:30 - 1,20
- There is also de avility for people to ask you to buy things like candy, chips, jelly beans and so on directly from the computer. You will just receibe a notice in the server computer telling you what the user wants and to what computer serve it corresponds. This is very useful in very big cyber cafes where it would be quite cumbersome for the client to make the whole trip to the control booth just to be served what he wants. The program will keep count of whatever he orders and will automatically tell you what he owes on the moment you charge for the service. It is also useful to allow you to keep a closer control on your employees if you feel like to.
FEATURES THAT ARE WORKING BUT ARE STILL INCOMPLETE:
- You can disallow the user from making changes to many of the computer settings.
-Lets you specify a list of forbiden programs you don't want your customers to run in your machines.
-You can change the volume of the client computers.
FEATURES THAT ARE BEING DEVELOPED:
-More datailed reports.
If you are interested in the program or want more information about it, feel free to get in touch with me, I will be more than glad to help you as best as I can, either by providing you the information that you ask myself or referring the email to the developer if it is a more technical one and providing you with an English response ( so please allow us enought time ).
There is not still a working version of the program in English but you can still get a version of the program in Spanish **here** if you want to take a look to it's user interface and usefulness.
Ps - I think it is not neccessary to say this, but if you are able to express yourself in Spanish ( which is the natal langague of the developer ) you can ofcourse direct your mail directly to him. If you can't speak Spanish or would rather prefer to make the question/request in English, then by all means go and send mail directly to me. It is up to you.
The developers email address -> **cbm@fibertel.com.ar**
My email ( the translator ) address is -> **bytemst@hotmail.com**