There are a number of reasons why you might want to create a kiosk type PC. Here are a few ideas that I have come across.
- Christian Campsites might want to have one or two PC’s available for guests to use the internet.
- A church may want to have a PC available for parishioners to use to get info or manage their church membership details.
- Your business may want to give employees internet access on a few dedicated PC’s in the lunch room rather than allowing them to use the work PC’s at their desk.
- You may want to have a PC at home dedicated for the kids, but lock it down a lot so they can’t abuse it.
There are a number of products out there and I will list a few of them below. Each product though has it’s own specialty, so not all of these will be the best option for your specific need.
Advanced Internet Kiosk is an application that will allow you to really lock down a PC. You can restrict access to the drives and various applications, and you can restict specific websites or all websites except your own list. This software is more aimed at the PC that needs to do a specific task but may be accessed by the public who may be tempted to mess around. This would be suited to a church environment with a single purpose like a web-based or even local software based church membership application. It would also be great for a pc running advertising via powerpoint as anyone who may get too close could do nothing with the machine but run the powerpoint show. It costs US$79.00 per installation (there are bulk rates) visit http://www.softstack.com/advink.html
Surf Easy Internet Cafe is more a system that you can use as a normal pay for use inetrnet terminal. The solution is quite comprehensive and can accomodate may operating modes including free access, pre-paid via credit cards, vouchers and even coin operated. The system uses a number of well known applications including Logmein and Steady State which will keep the system running without the hassle of having your PC messed up by people changing things that they shouldn’t. While this system is comprehensive, it is AU$285 per PC. (there are bulk rates) visit http://www.arinda.com.au/surfeasy.asp