surf-timer Internet Kiosk Software

Run the new setsurf.exe. Most of your existing settings will be used by version 3.5 and therefore you will not have to re-enter them all. You will however have to go to the Payment tab and select a payment mode (at the top of the Payment tab). If you are using access codes or coin/bill acceptors then you need to use one of the two pre-paid modes. Otherwise, read the information that follows to determine which payment mode you wish to use.
Overwrite the file surf.exe with the new one.

Server: If you are using your own database, changes to the data structure and new ISAPIs are required (you may already have done that if you have been using version 3.5 beta).

Download the following SQL script and run it against your database (normally using SQL Enterprise Manager). Make sure to backup your database first in case something goes wrong. This will add a new table and some new fields to existing tables. Click here to download script

Copy the new DLLs (ISAPIs) to your web server. Click here to download the new ISAPIs. It is recommended that you create a new directory on the web server and copy these new DLLs to that new directory. As you upgrade the kiosks to version 3.5 you simply have to change the ISAPI location information.

New features

New Server

This is not a new feature but should be a big improvement to reliability. A server is now dedicated only to providing database access for surf-timer kiosks. This new server is used if you select Default database in setsurf.

Instead of being limited to Free Access and Prepaid Access, you can now use surf-timer in one of eight Payment Modes. This is selected in setsurf under the Payment tab. Note that coin and bill acceptors only work with the Prepaid modes.

Free Access With Timer: surf-timer allows for free access but a timer is displayed and the usage will be terminated after n minutes, where n is specified under Prices. For example if you specify 15 as the number of minutes, then the user will be allowed 15 minutes of usage before everything is closed. If a printer is available, a number of pages that can be printed is also displayed, and the maximum number of pages printed is also specified under Prices.

Free Access Without Timer: This mode also allows the user to use applications for free, but without any limit of time and pages to print. The timer is not displayed.

Prepaid Minutes and Pages: In this mode, Access to the kiosk can be controlled using accounts (either access codes or user names/passwords) which are stored on a central database. This means that accounts can be used at any kiosks that belong to one owner. These accounts can be created by the kiosk when the user makes a payment, or they can be created by the kiosk owner. In this mode, surf-timer supports coins acceptors, bill acceptors, and credit card payments. The kiosk owner can generate accounts with a fix number of minutes and distribute these either by writing the access code on a card or by encoding a magnetic card. If a user makes a payment without being already in a session, an account is created and a session is started. If a user makes a payment while already in a session, the purchase minutes are added to the current account (if a user first makes a payment and specifies a user name/password combination which exists in the database then the existing account is used).

Prepaid Minutes (Printing Charged as Minutes): This mode is similar to the previous one except that printing is charged as minutes instead of maintaining a separate balance.

Prepaid Amount: This mode is similar to the previous one except that the balance is maintained as an Amount. This may be good for you if you wish to charge different prices for your different locations. The users pre-pay a certain amount, and the more you charge per minute the faster this amount will decrease.

Pay for Time/Printing Used (Display Min/Pages): In this mode, the user swipes a credit card to start a session, and his card is billed for the amount used. In this mode the number of minutes used and the number of pages printed are displayed but not the amount. In this mode, users can also gain access using an access code or a user name therefore allowing you to run promotions with free access codes, etc...

Pay for Time/Printing Used (Display Min/Pages/Amount): This mode is the same as the previous one except that the Amount is also displayed so that the user can see how much he has spent.

Cyber Cafe: In this mode, the user would go to a cashier, get an access code or user name, then enter that at the kiosk. The user will then gain access to the applications until he clicks on Sign Off. At this point a windows is displayed showing the user how many minutes/pages were used and the amount owed, including a description of the taxes. A receipt can also be printed/emailed at this time. One possible scenario would be to have the user bring this receipt to the cashier and pay. The access code/user name used in this mode can only be used once.

Advertising

You can now have a banner visible all the time, even when the kiosk is in use. This banner can be configured in setsurf, under the Advertising tab, banner called "All". This is a vertical banner which is displayed on the right side of the screen. Because the use of this banner reduces the space available to display application buttons, an option to reduce the size of these buttons was also added (under the Appearance tab).

User Names and passwords

User name and password: in setsurf, under Payments, if you select User Name/Password as a sign-in option, you will notice a new value next to this check box. The new value allows you to decide when the user specifies a username and password:

0: Never

1: At the time of the payment

3: When he quits, if the balance > 0

Also, if you select 1: At the time of the payment, and the user specified a user name and password that already exist, the existing account will be updated instead of creating a new one.

Email Footer

You can specify a footer to be displayed on out-going email messages (in setsurf, under applications, email).

Cash collection

When collecting the cash, Querying the status will give you how much should be in the box, and how much has been collected so far.
You can then specify how much was actually collected (hopefully the same as what was expected most of the time), and the name/Id of the collector. A new table was created as a list of all collections. For each collection there will be a record with the amount which was expected, the amount actually collected, and collected it, and the date and time of the collection. A new report was created to view the list of collections.

Crash during session

It is now possible to have the kiosk sign-in automatically when restarting if a new user was in a session and the PC rebooted (because of a crash). The kiosk will automatically sign in only in the case where it is a new account and therefore we don't know if the user knows his access code. To unable this new feature, check "Automatically Sign-In After Crash (For New Users Only)" under the Payment tab in setsurf.

Minutes/Pages/Amount values are stored locally on the PC during a session (every second). If the PC is turned off during a session, the database will be updated with these values at the beginning of the next session. This partly existed in version 3.13 but was improved.

Allowing free and restricted access to web sites

If you set a button with one of the "Other 1" through "Other 10", you can now make it safe to be free without allowing unwanted access. For the "Type", I added a third option called Web Browser Restricted. This restricts the browsing to the sites listed in Only Allow Access To (the one under each of the 10 "Other" applications. In that list you can use wild cards such as *microsoft*.

The same type of list is also used for the web banners.

Count From First Application

This is a new value under Payment. If you check this value then the timer will not start until the user launches an application. If you uncheck it, the timer will start as soon as the session starts.

Right Click

You can now enable Right Click in setsurf, under the security tab. If the value Right Click is checked then the right click is available. Note that it will still not be available in the built-in web browser.

Full Screen Web Advertising

There is now an option called Sound - located beside where you specify the URL for the web based full screen advertising. If you check this value, the window that contains this web page will be closed at the beginning of a usage, and reloaded at the end. This is useful if the page displayed includes sound otherwise the sound would not stop while the kiosk is in use. There was also a problem when using a web page which navigates to another one. This was fixed.

Account

You can now generate access codes with user name and passwords. For example if you specify user name to be "user" and password to be "password", it will create an account with these values. If you generate more than one account, then it will add a digit (user1, user2, etc...). For the password it will add 4 randomly selected digits, like password4254.

If you have a card reader connected to the PC where you run account.exe, you can now swipe an access code card and the balance will be retrieved automatically.

Also, a field to specify the balance in Amount was added for the new payment mode "Pre-paid amount".

Coin/Bill Acceptors

Support for more interfaces was added, including the MF100 from Hemisphere West to work with the Microcoin QL.

Edit buttons

You can now choose not to display the Copy/Cut/Paste buttons in the built-in applications. This can be done by unchecking Edit Buttons - Displayed on the General tab of setsurf.

Log File

To simplify the task of parsing the log files, I added a 3 character value for each line:

DBE: Database error
INF: Information
ERR: Error
WSV: Web site visited
WFM: Web site visited from menu (from one of the buttons created on the main menu)
APS: Application started
DIS: Disconnection (dialup)
CON: Connection (dialup)
DAD: Display advertising - the screen saver ad
HAD: Hide advertising - when the mouse is moved, a key is pressed, or a payment is made.
UST: Usage started
UEN: Usage ended
SVY: the link to display the survey was clicked.
WD1: A link on the Web display 1 was clicked (web banner). The line in the log file will also include the URL clicked.
WD2: A link on the Web display 2 was clicked (web banner). The line in the log file will also include the URL clicked.
WD3: A link on the Web display 3 was clicked (web banner). The line in the log file will also include the URL clicked.
WD4: A link on the Web display 4 was clicked (web banner). The line in the log file will also include the URL clicked.
WBL: A link on the Web based main menu was clicked. The line in the log file will also include the URL clicked.

So if you wanted to know the average number of banners clicked per user, you could write a program that would go through the log file and count the number of WD1, WD2, WD3, WD4, and reset the counter every time a UST occurs.