Internet access in 5 rooms without pcs

Hi,

Sorry if this is off topic but I thought these groups would have knowledgable people to advise on what I am looking for.

My mother runs a bed and breakfast with 5 rooms for guests. Last year I setup a pc in the lounge for internet access for guests. It has proved so popular that I think it would be good to have internet access in each bedroom.

We have 1Mb broadband (adsl), a netgear adsl router and an 8 port switch. There are currently two cat 5 cables(double socket) running to the lounge for public pc broadand access.

I am looking at having internet access in each room but am looking for different options available. I know the first step is to run cat5 to each room and connect to switch. Rather than have a different computer in each room, is there an option of having one computer(server) and somehow just have a screen/monitor/keyboard in each room and somehow connecting it all up to the cat5 connection. If different cabling required, that is n problem.

All suggestions welcome.

Thanks, Craig

Reply to
Craig
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You can use "thin clients", basically just bottom of the barrell computers that connect to the "real" computer. You would need a server OS on the server with enough licenses to cover the rooms. Hardware wise though, I think you'd get off cheaper by just buying a bunch of re-cycled P3s or something from eBay. Windows 98 and IE6 should work just fine for Internet. Make sure the computers you buy have a license for at least Win98 / WinME. The downside to doing it that way is that knowedgable people will pertty much be able to do as they please with te computers. If you used Windows

2000 or XP Pro clients and a domain, you could lock them down to where nothing on the workstations was accessible, the only icon on the desktop pointed to Internet Explorer, and it actually started an RDP session on the server. Cost-wise, this is much more expensive.

There are also lower-cost appliances that do Internet access only and complete systems for lodging providers that handle billing and the whole shot if you were intending to charge for the service. You'd have to check out pricing.

...kurt

Reply to
Kurt

Firstly, as others said - go wireless. Saves you a lot of work, means that if I am staying there with my own laptop I can connect and I'll be happy, and did I mention it saves you a lot of work?

Next up, for terminals in each room. Hmmm.. You'll need something like this perhaps:

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- they do a wireless option I believe, or models with PCI slots allow you to add your own. (I use wyse only as an example of a terminal that will do the job, there are ones from other manufactures out there).

Reply to
Robert Moir

Reply to
James

Yeah but some of the Wyse models come with WinCE or XPe - these should be just peachy to browse the internet just as they are.

Reply to
Robert Moir

There's the Linux option also depending on how comfortable you are learning.

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Reply to
The Man

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