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Thread: Comms between shops..

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    Comms between shops..

    I have three shops and they need to communicate between themselves as to who has what stock. My shops are very small and are in rural areas and I am trying to keep the costs as low as possible.

    The main shop has a telcom line, the other two just have 8ta cell phones (cheaper rates to telcom lines). This is already quite a saving on the high business line rentals.

    Now I am think of a) cutting some of the call costs, b) increasing communication and c) being able to send stock taking spreadsheets for them to full in so we don't get into situations where there are 6 of one item at one shop and nothing in the other two.

    So all will get an internet connection. I am a fan of prepay and the best deal for me seems the 100mb p/m x 12 for R349 once of from vodacom. i like the idea of it being capped every month instead of 2gb for a year.

    Each shop will have it's own email address

    Couple of questions...

    Can I delete all browsers, or is this unwise?

    I do not want that 100mb to be used up on useless updates - is this easy to control/stop?

    I want them to have some sort of instant messaging system - what is the most basic and preferably a stand alone system.

    What i would love is to make this a "closed network" - them only being able to communicate with the other 3 computers and the mail server, is this possible?

    Is it easy for the modem to automatically connect and stay connected every time the pc is switched on?

    Cheers

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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pap_sak View Post
    Couple of questions...

    Can I delete all browsers, or is this unwise?
    You can uninstall all browsers on any M$ OS later than XP. Before that elements of Internet Explorer were shared and integrated into other parts of the operating system. Problem is how are you going to stop people either reinstalling a browser or booting to a flash drive and running apps from there?

    I do not want that 100mb to be used up on useless updates - is this easy to control/stop?
    Yes, a decent firewall can deny all applications internet access (including the Windoze operating system)

    I want them to have some sort of instant messaging system - what is the most basic and preferably a stand alone system.
    Not sure but maybe Pidgin or Trillian will do this, maybe skype aswell if you disable audio and video devices. Why do you want IM? It will open the door for social networking and all the rubbish that comes with it.

    What i would love is to make this a "closed network" - them only being able to communicate with the other 3 computers and the mail server, is this possible?
    It can be set up as a 'darknet' as we used to call it. I'm sure you can configure a decent firewall (try comodo) to ban HTTP protocol traffic.

    Is it easy for the modem to automatically connect and stay connected every time the pc is switched on?
    Are you using modems, not routers?

    Cheers
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    I was in a shop in the East Rand Mall the other day looking for something - they did not have it in their store so the guy picked up a little phone and spoke to one of his other shops via skype. It turns out they all have skype so if they talk it is for free. The can also type messages as well.

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    Pap_sak (22-Sep-11)

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    Best way is to have a web page, in which each shop puts there stock in daily. In the back ground, the data base ties every one up, and on a search for a aprticular item it shows who has stock. This is something that will have to be purpose made.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kevinb View Post
    I was in a shop in the East Rand Mall the other day looking for something - they did not have it in their store so the guy picked up a little phone and spoke to one of his other shops via skype. It turns out they all have skype so if they talk it is for free. The can also type messages as well.
    I think Kevinb is right .
    SKYPE is very popular nowadays.
    Another HOT On-line chatting tools in China is QQ.but all with Chinese. i think they have English format soon.
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    Thanks for that andy.

    When you say OS later than XP - i am guessing that does not include XP? Unfortunately running xp home on all he pc's.

    I thought that with an IM it could replace some of the phone calls - with email there is often that lag of an email coming in sitting on the server before being downloaded. Of course you could just set the client to check for emails every 30 seconds or so, but I guess in this is not "good practice"?

    Will be using vodacom usb modems.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kevinb View Post
    I was in a shop in the East Rand Mall the other day looking for something - they did not have it in their store so the guy picked up a little phone and spoke to one of his other shops via skype. It turns out they all have skype so if they talk it is for free. The can also type messages as well.
    Actually that might be the way to go, just not sure how much "bandswidth" keeping skype in the background all day would use up. I see a basic VOIP phone cost around R450, but maybe try it without the phone for a bit and see how it goes.

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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pap_sak View Post
    When you say OS later than XP - i am guessing that does not include XP? Unfortunately running xp home on all he pc's.
    I just checked on my XP machine and Internet Explorer appears in the Add/Remove Programs tab under 'Windws Components' so it looks like it can be removed from XP.
    Quote Originally Posted by Pap_sak View Post
    Of course you could just set the client to check for emails every 30 seconds or so, but I guess in this is not "good practice"?
    I think the bandwidth overhead of constantly querying the SMPT server would be an issue and probably have cost implications.
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