Dear Nairalanders,
I need someone that can help me with details of all that I will need and all it will cost me to own a cybercafe in a locality where power supply is so bad and can be compared to non at all am also doing my own personal research though but I believe we have intelects here who are ready to help I need a down to earth information I mean from the scratch to the full assuming I know nothing about it at all that is how I want it so please help out.
From system requirement and cost to ethernet card and switches and other connections if you do understand what I mean. I will be very grateful.

Hello Hedgefuns,

I can give you all u need to setting up a cafe from start to finish feel free to call me on 08023801905 so we can hook up . regards

Dear Hedges fun,

Well, I am a Network Engr/IT Consultant, I have been setting up Cyber cafe's, ISPs, VSATs, WiFi Networks for clients for over 5 years now in Nigeria.

I must advice 1st and foremost, to setup a cyber cafe in Nigeria , you must consider the following factors:

1. LOCATION: Must be in an environment where there are more youths (e.g school environment), where people are IT Oriented (e.g In Cities Like, Lagos, PH, Ibadan, Benin, Abuja), where people have disposable income (e.g Middle to Topklass environs in a city)

2. POWER: Must be in an environment where power supply stablility ranges from 65% - 85% so that Gen will complement the rest, else cost of Diesel, Fuel or Generator maintaince will affect your returns.

3. SATELLITE PROVIDER: You must subscribe to a satellite provider with at least 98% uptime, with Good bandwidth management, Good Customer care, Quality Technical Support, Good IP address/Spam Policy.

4. TECHNICAL: You Must have an uptodate Servers for Network Efficiency, Network Security and Bandwidth management. You must also have an in house (full time) sound, experienced Site Engineer/Administrator then may be a much experienced Consultant for backup.

5. MANAGEMENT: You must have an extra mile Business and Management Strategies to survive in the Business. And moreso, you must have an up to date, well secured Billing Software(s) for Ticket generation, Sales, Ticket maintainance/Logs with Printer and Scanning Logs and Billing software as well.

6) NETWORK CAPACITY: You must have a plan for the capacity of your network, Cyber cafes of 5 - 15 computers will not survive. I will recommend from 20 and above. If all the above conditions are met, the larger the network, the better the Returns.

RECOMENDATIONS:

1) Use only C-BAND 1.8M DISH, 2W BUC for a network of between 15 - 75 computers and-BAND 2.4M DISH, 5W BUC for a network of between 80 - 200 computers. I will reccommend C-Band against Ku-Band coz it's not affected by whether or rainfade unlike Ku-Band. Ku will be ok for Churches and NGOs

2.) I will recommend you use Brand New computers for your Servers and Workstations. use Intel Pentium IV for your Servers and Intel P III or Gigapro 2000+ for your workstations.

3.) I will recommend Linksys Switches for you LAN, I will not reccommend Cisco Switches becos of the cost but Linksys is a subsidiary of Cisco which is better when compared to other switches in the Nigerian market.


COSTS:

You can get a C-Band VSAT 1.8M, 2W BUC between $3,000 - $4,000 excluding activation, Installation and bandwidth which differs

You can get a C-Band VSAT 2.4M, 5W BUC between $5,000 - $6,500 excluding activation, Installation and bandwidth which differs

You can get a complete Pentium IV computer between N55,000 - 75,000 depending on the configuration.

You can get a complete GIGAPRO 2000+ computer between N40,000 - 45,000 depending on the configuration and it is a function of the number of workstations you want to use.

You can get a Linksys switch (16 port = N15,000) (24 port = N22,000)

OTHER COSTS:

YOU HAVE TO BEAR IN THE MIND THE FOLLOWING COSTS AS WELL"

1) ACCOMODATION/SPACE

2.) NETWORK TRUNKING AND CABLING

3.) ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONICS EQUIPMENT AND WIRING

4.) GENERATOR COST

5.) FURNITURE AND DECORATIONS.

N.B: the prices above may not be actual as they are only for estimates.

Thanks IT Guru, I really appreciate your post and I must tell you I do love it however some of these things are not really gonna be able to work in my situation.
I have a location where there are lots of students at least considerably as am also a student that does Online business too.
Power I must say is zero that is why I will like to know about alternative power supply like the inverter or any other one
I am on a low budget so I may not be able to get a VSat but am talking to some ISPs that will be ready to offer bandwith to me and I think its considerably good.
I wanna know why a cafe of about 10-15 systems will not work because that is my proposal I am thinking on a mini cafe and not a bogus one of like 20 and above though I plan to expand but I have to work on my budget for now am particularly interested in cybercafe simply because I am into online business and the cafes here are not particularly efficient and they have too much crowd so most of the time I get to wait a long time to get to work which is not very good for me, thus I thought of providing the service as part of my business.

goget:

Hello Hedgefuns,

I can give you all u need to setting up a cafe from start to finish feel free to call me on 08023801905 so we can hook up . regards

Must we meet for you to give me all you wanna give me well I will call you but try and give it here if you can. thanks