Networking for an internet cafe...what equipment should we get

[JamesES]

So we're opening an Internet Cafe/Print Shop, got everything almost ready, only to get stumped on the networking aspect. I don't know what equipment to buy for our setup, and networking is far from my forte. Some of my employees have better experience with it, but their butting heads on what equipment to buy( router, switch, wifi router). 

Including our computers, POS system, security cam setup, we currently have 13 devices that need to be hard wired. So at least 13 LAN ports and wifi access is required. Right now all we have is Comcast's modem and dodgy 4 LAN port router. Any suggestions?
 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Depending on how much you want to tune the network, a simple switch with enough ports to cover the number of computers you have should be sufficient.

 

As for the topology, I would say do Modem -> Wireless router -> Switch(es)

[ThatMan99]

When i setup Networks for different Stores and sutch i always use the ubiquty gear! Its great witch good coverage and a great user interface (the unifi gear) and u can easily setup different Wifi networks and sutch.

 

Look in to it, its great stuff and not that expensive  

[JamesES]

1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Depending on how much you want to tune the network, a simple switch with enough ports to cover the number of computers you have should be sufficient.

 

As for the topology, I would say do Modem -> Wireless router -> Switch(es)

Maybe you could elaborate on the network tuning part. It's an internet cafe, so generally you'd have one computer managing all the clients comps with cyber cafe software. Then I was told it's better to have the POS system on a different network from everything else. And of course our cameras are connected to the wifi router as well, so we can view our office from any device via the cloud. Is a switch still good enough, and reliable enough for all that?

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, JamesES said:

Maybe you could elaborate on the network tuning part. It's an internet cafe, so generally you'd have one computer managing all the clients comps with cyber cafe software. Then I was told it's better to have the POS system on a different network from everything else. And of course our cameras are connected to the wifi router as well, so we can view our office from any device via the cloud. Is a switch still good enough, and reliable enough for all that?

Like do you care about QoS and other sort of things?

 

I'm not much of a network expert, so I don't know what other features you should consider for this type of setup.

[JamesES]

12 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Like do you care about QoS and other sort of things?

 

I'm not much of a network expert, so I don't know what other features you should consider for this type of setup.

QoS? Yeah...I'm definitely a network layman.  We're trying to build a high quality establishment, a setup that's reliable and fast is needed. Generally I'd just hire a pro to set us up, but the guy we'd use has gone on vacation till January...and has gone radio silent on us. Now I'm pretty much trying to acquire the necessary equipment, so when our friend returns, he can have us up and running in a day or two.

[Levisallanon]

oké let's start with your requirements.
How many computers do you have which need to be connected by wire?
Do you have any other services which work by the network?
How many clients do you expect to connect wireless?
Do you need to seperate guests from a production wireless network?
What kind of logging do you need?
What kind of outbound connection(s) do you have?

What kind of gear do you have already?
Where (which country) is this located?
What is your budget?

Pictures of the layout or a floorplan would help too.
And any other information you have please post it too.

[JamesES]

18 hours ago, Levisallanon said:

oké let's start with your requirements.
How many computers do you have which need to be connected by wire?
Do you have any other services which work by the network?
How many clients do you expect to connect wireless?
Do you need to seperate guests from a production wireless network?
What kind of logging do you need?
What kind of outbound connection(s) do you have?

What kind of gear do you have already?
Where (which country) is this located?
What is your budget?

Pictures of the layout or a floorplan would help too.
And any other information you have please post it too.

 

1. How many computers do you have which need to be connected by wire?

 

1 PC to manage/act as server for the internet cafe 

6 Client PCs for the cafe

4 MISC employee PCs 

1 PC for Point-Of-Sales system

1 connection for our security cam system

 

2. Do you have any other services which work by the network?

 

Printing... We want to control/monitor the printing for the internet cafe through the server/manager PC.

 

3. How many clients do you expect to connect wireless?

 

Hmm...the only wireless connections we should have are employee cell phones and tablets, maybe a employee printer or two.

 

4. Do you need to seperate guests from a production wireless network?

 

At least for now, wifi access is employee only...so no guest access needed.

 

5. What kind of logging do you need?

 

Don't know if I fully understand this question. We at least want to block certain sites on the client PCs, as well as log traffic.

 

6. What kind of outbound connection(s) do you have?

 

Not sure I fully get this one either. We are not really connecting to any servers outside our office. 

 

7. What kind of gear do you have already?

 

Comcast modem, and their wifi router. There's also 2 802.11g crap routers in some box in our basement.

 

8. Where (which country) is this located?

 

United States

 

9. What is your budget?

 

The frugal bastard in me wants to say $350, but if it requires more, it's no problem.

 

 

 

 

 

[Levisallanon]

2 hours ago, JamesES said:

 

1. How many computers do you have which need to be connected by wire?

 

1 PC to manage/act as server for the internet cafe 

6 Client PCs for the cafe

4 MISC employee PCs 

1 PC for Point-Of-Sales system

1 connection for our security cam system

That's not a lot, Are all 6 PC's close to each other or are they spread out trough the café?
Do you expect to have more PC's at a later time?

2 hours ago, JamesES said:

2. Do you have any other services which work by the network?

 

Printing... We want to control/monitor the printing for the internet cafe through the server/manager PC.

So the guests should be able to print but you want to set quota's or at least see how many prints they did? Or do you want to have them pay for the printing too?

2 hours ago, JamesES said:

3. How many clients do you expect to connect wireless?

 

Hmm...the only wireless connections we should have are employee cell phones and tablets, maybe a employee printer or two.

 

4. Do you need to seperate guests from a production wireless network?

 

At least for now, wifi access is employee only...so no guest access needed.

You aren't going to have a BYOD (Bring your own device) policy where people can bring a laptop for example and work from that?
 

 

2 hours ago, JamesES said:

5. What kind of logging do you need?

 

Don't know if I fully understand this question. We at least want to block certain sites on the client PCs, as well as log traffic.

For example you can perform DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection) so you can see what guests are doing etc. Blocking certain sites is a lot harder already if you also want a secure connection but should be possible unless they are using VPN services.
But would you need to monitor how much bandwith a guest is using etc? Would you need to monitor if a guest for example uses bittorrent or something like that to download illegal stuff, or maybe uses TOR to do illegal stuff. If a customer is doing illegal stuff on your computers and you can't prove it was him you will be reliable as far as I know.... So say in the worst case the customer uploads child pornography or something by using your computers and you can't prove it was this customer who did it you might be in a lot of problem. I'm not enterly sure how the laws work about this subject in the US but it might be worth looking into.

 

2 hours ago, JamesES said:

6. What kind of outbound connection(s) do you have?

 

Not sure I fully get this one either. We are not really connecting to any servers outside our office. 

 

7. What kind of gear do you have already?

 

Comcast modem, and their wifi router. There's also 2 802.11g crap routers in some box in our basement.

Mostly need to know how many internet connection you have. If you want to guarentee a good service you might want to consider a backup line so incase your line goes down you can still provide services to your customers.

Also what kind of connection is Comcast offering you?

2 hours ago, JamesES said:

9. What is your budget?

 

The frugal bastard in me wants to say $350, but if it requires more, it's no problem.

If you want to provide a good service to your customers you want to look at enterprise equipment so you might be looking at a higher price, but it would mean better support on the purchases and normally also a better quality.

You are talking about a server sometimes. Got some specs about this server? I'm not completly up to speed on software which is used in internet cafes, any special requirements here? Would you use this server for example to filter the trafic also (so to use it as a firewall)? If so does it have at least 2 network connections?