Which ISP and type of plan for an internet cafe

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Pwned

105 posts

Master Geek

Topic # 66207 14-Aug-2010 14:25

Hi guys! I'm planning to open a small internet cafe together with my mobile phone repair shop. Which ISP and plan suits this business type? I'm in Blenheim btw. It will just be around 10 units, for browsing and checking e-mails.

I appreciate any help.

Decimate

120 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 367566 14-Aug-2010 14:51

Hi there,

Were you wanting any gaming on the machines at all? You can get fibre around most of Blenheim which is a fairly reasonable cost for a 30M/30M service.

If you were thinking you would have a standard broadband plan then it's up to you who you choose but I would try Snap, which is a SI based ISP and if you read through their forum they've got lots of fans.

How much bandwidth do you estimate you'd need?

Cheers

Pwned

105 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 367568 14-Aug-2010 15:10

Thanks for that. Games are very demanding and requires hi specs computers in most cases. But yeah I'll check out Snap's plans. As for the bandwidth, I don't have a figure in mind at the moment to be honest. I'm gonna do some asking from internet cafe owners, just to get an idea.

Decimate

120 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 367571 14-Aug-2010 15:20

No worries,

Snap don't advertise their business plans on their website so you might need to ring them or e-mail.

hellonearthisman

1818 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 52

Trusted

Reply # 368561 17-Aug-2010 10:33

You would want an ISP that will recognize you as a down stream provider. This will protect your internet service against the proposed S92a actions by letting you pass on any notices of copyright infringing done by your customers.

Pwned

105 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 368588 17-Aug-2010 11:27

Thanks mate, I'll keep that in mind. That's really important.

insane

2282 posts

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Subscriber

Reply # 369583 18-Aug-2010 22:20

I've seen many internet cafes try get away with DSL or even 2mbps UNS connections and its ALWAYS never enough.
Whoever you choose to ask, ask about HSNS, it can be delivered over a number of different connection mediums and is pretty well prices. Of course bandwidth costs will then also need to be accounted for.

webwat

1984 posts

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Reply # 370363 20-Aug-2010 15:51

insane: I've seen many internet cafes try get away with DSL or even 2mbps UNS connections and its ALWAYS never enough.
Whoever you choose to ask, ask about HSNS, it can be delivered over a number of different connection mediums and is pretty well prices. Of course bandwidth costs will then also need to be accounted for.

2megs UNS would be plenty for such a small net cafe as long as you restrict speed of downloads and block any use of bittorrent software on your machines. If you dont have a system that can do loadbalancing (eg pfSense or monowall) to prevent 1 user hogging your bandwidth then you would need more bandwidth. Normally a net cafe wants to guarantee their bandwidth and latency at peak times so you are looking at 100% CIR for a gaming business, perhaps 5 megs. Gaming and VoIP require low latency so you have to manage any congestion one way or another, so if you dont have a server managing all your users then you spend money on bandwidth. I would team up with a computer guy that can administer a load balancing firewall for you.

Qualified in business, certified in fibre, stuck in copper, have to keep going ^_^