Internet Cafe Manager consists in three separated software:
- ICM Server
- ICM Client
- ICM Printer Monitor
In order to achieve a correct configuration, please stick to the following sequence:
1. Install ICM Server on the ICM Administrator's computer and share, both for read and write, the Database's folder in the installation folder.
2. Then install ICM Client on each workstation.
3.
Install ICM Printer Monitor on PC connected to the printer(s). If you
do not wish to monitor the pages printed by users, you may avoid installing
this software.
ICM Server Installation
In order to installing ICM Server, it is necessary to log on Windows as Administrator.
· Run ICMServerSetup.exe
· Click on “Next”
·
Read carefully the Terms and Conditions for the license of the software.
Clicking on “Next” you accept all points of the Terms and Conditions.
·
The program will be installed in the folder C:\ Program Files\ICMServer\ as
default.
It’s possible to change the software location, however it’s suggestible to
leave the default path.
·
At this point it is possible to choose the name of the link that will be display
on “Start”>”Programs”
· It’s possible to create shortcuts for quicker launch of the program:
- On the Desktop (tick on the first box)
- On the Quick Launch bar (tick on the second box)
Click on “install”
to complete the installation of selected options.
First Launch and Configuration of ICM Server
For a correct configuration of Internet Cafe Manager it’s necessary that the database is located on a folder shared with whole network and accessible with both Read and Write permissions (privilege) from each client.
Unless the default installation folder has been changed, the database will be on c:\ Program Files\ICMServer\Database.
In order to share that folder, find c:\ Program Files\ICMServer folder browsing from My Computer. Once found the Database folder, right click on it and choose “Properties” option on the drop-down list.
Using Windows XP: tick both “Share folder on the network” and “allow users to modify files”. As shown below image by red arrows:
Using Windows 2000: click on “Sharing” tab. Choose the option “Share this folder” and click on “permission”; enable all the users to modifying files by ticking the proper boxes.
Run ICM
Server.
If the software is not registered yet, the following window will appear:
In order to register the software, click on “Yes” and see the chapter “Software Registration”.
Otherwise if you want to run the demo, click on “No”.
The use of ICM Server is protected by password, so at the starting will pop the following window:
As default, the administrator password is “admin” (lower case).
Once log on the program, it is advised to change the default password; in order to do that, see the functionality of “Option button”, explained here below.
If you enter the correct password, the following window will appear:
The trial version has not limited functionalities but it will be working for a period of 15 days.
Even during the trial period, technical support will be available by email free of charge.
It will be possible also to ask, always for free, for an our technician to aid you along all the installation and configuration processes of the software.
If you then decide to purchase the software later on, all your data won’t be lost!
For buying the software or for more information, contact our user help desk at
0039 0832 354162
or at info@pianetasoftware.it
At the first launch, if no client has been installed in the network, the ICM
Server will show the following screen:
At this point,
you may begin to install clients.
ICM Client installation
If you want to install “ICM Client”, you need to log on Windows as administrator.
The software will be installed in the folder C:\Program Files\ICMClient as default.
It is possible to change the installing location, if you wish to, although it is advised to leave the default folder.
Click on “Next”.
- On the Desktop (tick on the first box)
- On the Quick Launch bar (tick on the second box)
Click on “install” to complete the installation of selected options.
In order to configuring correctly ICM Client, it is necessary to log on Windows as Administrator. Then, after the first configuration, the program should be used by a limited permission users, so system damages will be avoided.
At the first launch the following window will be shown:
In case of you are installing a new network access point, select the first item and click on “Next”:
The name of the new workstation will be the first available code; however, it is possible to choose the description of the workstation itself (i.e. PC by the entry, workstation 1, etc...).
Click on “Finish”.
When you execute the first launch after either formatting the hard disk, deleting&reinstalling the software or resetting an already existing workstation, on the first window you have to choose “Reinstallation existing workstation” and the following window will pop up:
On the box “workstation name” select the workstation name you wish to reinstall and click on “Finish”; proceeding in this way it will not be added a new workstation name on the server, the client instead will be matched to the selected workstation.
If the software is not registered yet, the following window will appear:
In order to register the software, click on “Yes” and see the chapter “Software Registration”.
If you want instead to run the demo, click on “No”.
After naming the workstation, you will be able to access the “ICM Client” interface.
At this point the access to the workstation is disable.
It’s is possible to enable the access to the workstation only from the Server’s administrator through ICM Server, or alternatively through login with a pre-paid credit.
If you wish the PC runs “ICM Client” at every booting session, it is possible to set “ICM Client” Autorun.
Click on the item “Administrator >>” to set this feature.
Insert the administrator’s password, predefined “admin” as default; it’s advisable to change password using “ICM Server” setting.
If the password is correct, the administrator's session will begin, where the following features can be set for the relative client:
Ticking this item, you can use this software with a Smart Card Reader (it is necessary to install the Smart Card Reader beforehand).
This information will be available from ICMServer, therefore the visited addresses will be visible only to the administrator.
Clicking on
“Exit” will allow you to close “ICM Client” and use the PC regularly.
Program registration
If you want to used “Internet Cafe Manager” at its fullest functionality, you have to register it.
Since ICM version 5.0.0, the software activation is executed only on the server, not on each client.
All the times the program is launched, the registration status is checked; If the software is not register yet, you will see the following message:
Clicking on “Yes”, the registration window will pop up:
The software
registration is very simple: it's enough to insert in above box the license
code received by email when the software was purchased, then click on “Get
license”.
ICM Client Features
When ICM Client is running, it is full screen window and it disables the PC to execute any other program, even the key combination ctrl+alt+delete (Task Manager) is disabled.
Users can access to the workstation with the following two modalities:
- Access through the server (useful for infrequent users)
- Access through login (for user with pre-paid credit)
Once the workstation has been activated through ICM Server, the user is able
to log on ICM Client clicking on “Log in”.
Once logged in, a small window will appear on the top right corner, always as foreground, as shown on the following image:
With this window, the user can monitor the duration of the connection as well as the connection cost, calculated in according with the fare set on “ICM Server”.
As said above, Task Manager (ctrl+alt+delete) is disabled in order to avoid the user to closing “ICM Client”.
The administrator can enable the Task Manager clicking on Admin, that will lead to the following window:
Once inserted the right password, the manager can enable/disable Task Manager.
Clicking the button STOP, the user may log off and leave the workstation.
At this point the workstation will be locked again; on the manager’s screen that client will get the status “Awaiting for Payment”, with both duration and cost of the connection (see ICMServer use).
If you buy the ICM version with pre-paid credit management, user can connect on the workstation without waiting for being enabled by the administrator.
Users who want to purchase pre-paid credit from the administrator, can then log in using own data; these data are chosen when users top up own credit.
At any time any user can change own password clicking on the item “change password >>”.
When an user logs in through a pre-paid credit, the program checks whether the credit hasn’t run out, in this case the program lets user access.
As soon as the user logs in, a small window will appear on the right top corner, as illustrate below:
From the left hand side, the upper boxes are respectively the connection time and the credit left. The lower box shows the time left that depends on the credit left.
When the user wishes to finish own connection, he will click on Stop button and the credit left will be available for the next connection.
Two minutes before the credit runs out, the window begins to blink; in this way the user has enough time to top up his credit if he wishes so. Otherwise, when the time left is over, the workstation will be blocked and the starting page will be shown again.
ICM Server consists in 6 masks:
- Workstations management
- Clients profiles
- Clients list
- Connections list
- Pre-Paid top up list
- Utility
This is the main mask of the program and it allows the full management of the Internet Point.
On the left hand side there is the workstation list; for each workstation
an icon shows the status of the client.
There are 3 status:
When the client status is “Available”, it means an user can use it, however the administrator has to activate it to enable the access.
In order to enable the access, it’s necessary to select the user on the proper box: start to type the user’s family name, if it is already listed it may be selected, otherwise the program will ask to add it to User List.
In this way, the button “Activate workstation” will become clickable, and once clicked, the workstation will be enabled to the access and the client status will become “Busy”.
Now the user can use the workstation activated and begin to surf clicking on “Log in”.
When the user will be finished and wants to leave the workstation, the user will click on STOP button of “ICM Client”, and on the computer of administrator the client status will become “Awaiting for Payment”.
When the client is Awaiting for Payment, it is possible to show the following:
- Date/time of activation
- Total time of connection
- Fare applied
- Total cost of connection
- Cost of pages printed (if any).
If any page has been printed, an imagine of a printer appears on the right hand side by costs details. Clicking on that image, details of printed pages will be shown as the following imagine:
If the user clicked the STOP button unintentionally, it would be possible to rehabilitate the workstation clicking on “Re-active workstation”. In this case, the user can access again to the workstation and the connection time will be running from the point it was stopped.
Clicking instead on “Reset workstation” button, the client status will switch to “Available” and all connection data will be saved on the database.
The fare charged to the user may be modified before resetting the workstation.
In this case, before the data are saved, the total cost of the connection will be recalculated in according with the new fare.
Choosing the options in the box on the right hand side, it is possible to execute the following actions on the selected client:
· to stop the client (only if its status is Busy)
· to re-active the client
· to close the client
·
to send a message to the client; a small window showing the sent message will
appear on the client's workstation screen
Users Profiles
In this session, it is possible to manage the details of Internet Point users.
For each user, the following details are possible to be recorded:
All details of users profiles are easily changeable using the record browsing bar on the lower part of the screen.
When the mouse pointer is on any button for few seconds, the functionality of the button itself is reminded by a tool tip.
The box on the right hand side allows both to apply a certain fare to the user and to manage the pre-paid credit.
Any user can be identify with an user ID and a password, which will be used by the user to log on the workstations. Once logged on, any user can change own password using the proper option.
The “Top up” button allows to add new credit to the user. Clicking on that button the following window will pop up
In that window the credit to top up may be inserted and added by clicking on “Top Up”.
The credit inserted will be added to the eventual credit left of the user.
The user will use own credit when he/she will log in any of workstations available.
The button “Reset Credit Left” forces the credit left to zero and creates a negative item on the Top Up list.
This mask is featured with a powerful tool for searching and managing those users whose details are stored in the program.
The following features are available to the manager:
This mask is featured with a powerful tool for searching and managing all connections executed.
The following options are available:
Click then on the Explorer icon to export those filtered connections to HTML file e then print them.
Note: In order to obtaining web sites visited list, it is necessary that both the browser used for clients is “Microsoft Internet Explorer” and the item “log visited web sites” has been ticked on the client options.
That mask is to show and to manage the top-up’s done for the pre-paid users.
.
The following options are available:
This mask controls functions that determine important features of the software.
In order to performing the data back-up, it is enough to select the folder location and to press the bottom “Run data backup”. Automatic backup may be chosen (recommended) and it will be run each time the program will be closed.
This function allows to force reset to a selected workstation. This function should be used only in case of workstation error does not let the sever correctly control a workstation. Before forcing reset, make sure that on the selected workstation is not running ICMClient.
This function can be used either to register the software or to update the license number after the purchase.
This function checks whether the system time of each client is synchronized to the server one.
This function lets the administrator to send message
to all clients, stop them, close them down or restart them.
The general options of the program may be set on the window options, reachable by clicking on “Options” button.
From the window options it is possible the following:
1 To manage the fares
2 To change the manager’s password.
That password is required for:
1. Access to ICMServer program.
2. Access to ICM Client settings.
3. Close ICM Client.
4. Enable/Disable the Task Manager on ICM Client.
The password is set “admin” as default; it is strongly suggested to modify it at the soonest.
Since the program version 4.0.0, a new fares management has been introduced, which makes ICM extremely powerful and flexible.
Now it is possible to define an infinite number of fares, even customization for an unique user or a group of users.
For instance, it is possible either to create a student fare, to set a promotional far or even a zero cost fare.
It is possible to set time tariffs up to 5 ranges for each fare, in order to get a custom time tariff. For example, if the administrator wants to charge users for the initial connection, to charge them even for few seconds, it is possible to set a different rate for the first minute/s.
Many Internet cafe administrators apply time tariff ranges, for example €1.50 for the first 15 minutes, €2.50 for the first half hour, €3.50 for the first 45 minutes and €4.00 per hour.
This one above and other infinite fares are easily manageable with ICM.
Let’s see here below how to set fares.
The fares management mask is found clicking on “Options” button.
On the top of the screen Fare Name appears, that is about the current
fare. Below that there is a box
On the bottom there is a navigation bar to create, change and delete a certain fare.
Clicking on the icon New Record, a new fare is created and all data concerning the new fare may be inserted.
For Fare Name item, type the name that will identify the new fare, i.e. Full Fare.
For each tariff fare it must be set its duration (in minutes) and its cost.
The tariff must be set sequentially and it is not mandatory to set all of them.
When a new tariff is correctly set, on the right hand side it will appear both a tick icon and the total cost for a connection ended within that tariff range (sum of current tariff and all the previous tariffs).
The item “hourly cost after last tariff defined” is about the cost for each hour of connection after the last tariff. The cost is calculated on basis of seconds of connection. This item is mandatory.
If all the tariff ranges are left blank, the cost of the connection applied depends only on the duration (in seconds) of the connection and on value inserted for “hourly cost after last tariff defined”.
Click the button Save once finished the new fare setting.
Clicking on Save and Close, the new fare setting is saved and the
window options closed.
The following examples are to clearify the Fares Management:
1) The connection fare is €4.00 per hour, however the minimum charge is for a quarter of hour, even for connections as long as 1 minute.
In this case, the total cost will be €1.00 for connections shorter than 15 minutes, so in case of an user stays connected for 16 minutes, the final charge will be €1.00 + 1/60*€4.00 = €1.07
2)
15 minutes cost €2.00; 30 minutes cost €4.00; 45 minutes cost €6.00;
1 hour costs €7.00; 90 minutes cost €10.00; for connection longer than 1 and
half hour, the fare is €5.00 per hours.
In such case a 46 minutes long connection will be charge €7.00, being the duration within the fourth range.
3) The first 10 minutes are free of charge, then the fare is €3.00 per hour.
As you can easily see, the combination are infinite and limited only by your imagination!
