My Cyber Cafe Business Experience 🖥

 It all started in 1999

My mama (Maternal) started Cybercafé business in 1999 with zero knowledge about computers. His cybercafé name was Clue Internet. As usual, initially, he struggled a lot in setting up the business yet with determination he successfully overcame all the troubles and prepared for the future hurdles 😊 

Our Network Administrator gave so much hard time to my mama regarding setting up the computers (installation, LAN set up, Router configuration, Dial-up connection, etc.,).  

I was in my 1st-year degree (graduation). I and a couple of friends are having a little bit of knowledge about computers but not about networking. We all together worked hard and at last, finished all the necessary steps.  

Our cybercafe is up and running. We started with 3 PC's and gradually increased as we earned more. 

The internet speed was like snail mail due to a lack of infrastructure and was costly per hour. We used to have some bitter clashes with customers regarding internet speed 😀 

Everything is good but we humans due to our greed we tend to turn good to bad. So, users come to cybercafe only to watch porn. Due to this, internet speed was slowed down even more. After a couple of weeks, one of my friends discovers some tools to restrict the behavior of some users.  We installed Remote Admin, Microsoft Net meeting, and Keylogger software to monitor on some users. 
We used to shut down the computer, close the apps for some users who watch the porn content. 

We continued this from 2000-2001 (1 year). 2001 onwards internet speed was quite good. 

We used Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows 7, Windows 10 OS. Of all os’s Windows ME is a hit for us. Customers liked in UI, UX when compared to Windows 98 SE. Drivers and LAN installation and configuration was easy and hassle-free. 
We used Router (WebRamp), Dial-up internet connection via Landline phone, WLL Connection (Wireless Local Loop), Broadband connection later. 

We used inkjet and laser printers and never used dot matrix printers as they are not suitable for cybercafes requirements. 

From late 2001 to late 2004 we played the Age of Empires series via LAN and other games are Rise of Nations, Age of Mythology, London Racer, FIFA 98 Road to World Cup, and more. 
Due to some situations, we used pirated software, songs, movies at that time mostly. 

At that time CD, DVD media is the gold standard. USB sticks are struggling to mark their place. 

In documents, we used Tahoma font and PowerPoint for logos, banners, and obviously for presentations 😊  

We earned so much profit when exam results were announced every April until 2008. Later the mobile phone and mobile data were on rising and people can find what they want.  

We tried a computer repairing business, but it was failed. Because we used to offer this service for free before and customers are reluctant to pay for it. 

Due to ongoing expenses, we hiked a rupee of 5/- on the existing tariff and that too failed. 

Then so many students are used to come to our cybercafe especially from KMC (Kakatiya Medical College) and REC Warangal (Reginal Engineering College now NIT National Institute of Technology) college students 

My cousins used the internet heavily to research their abroad studies and accommodation. They got a connection with their college seniors and received the necessary information about it.  

I and my cousin used to chat with foreigners to improve our English language. We used mIRC and MSN Chat mainly as they are popular in the USA, Australia, etc., 

Yahoo Chat was popular in India and we got in touch with Indians (North, South) mostly. Yahoo’s public chatrooms are yet another level. We used it to chat with international users. 

We tested so many browsers and e-mails services a lot. Some of them are Neo Planet, Net Captor, Opera, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Google Chrome, and more (Browsers). Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Rediffmail, India 123, Cool Mail, Lycos, USA.net, Excite, Outlook Express (Program), Hushmail, and many more 😀  

In Warangal, we are one of the early ones who set up Cybercafe business. It took almost 6 months to get the profits. Once profits are kicked in some users are astonished by our growth and they observed and surveyed our business and later they set up this business 😊  

We used to drink the chai for almost 20 times in a day (Tiny cup 😛). It costs only Rs. 2/- that lasted up to 2007 and then it gradually increased to Rs. 3,4,5,6 as of March 2020 😀  

At one time we maintained up to 7 PCs and then reduced to 5 due to lack of proper planning. 

We are a team of 7 members but didn’t use our talents effectively while others used it and they grow up. We have named our team name as CSS Kings (Clue Super Seven) but it didn’t take off! 

A couple of times some international people visited our Cybercafe (African and Swedes) 

We used the following search engines before Google was a DeFacto standard for search 😀 AltaVista, Go, Go To, Yahoo, Hotbot (My favorite) 

Before Google and Bing Translation, we used a Babelfish translator. 

From 2010 with the rise of mobile phones and mobile internet, our business started to diminish again due to our lack of foresight and we didn’t move with the trend.  

Since 2013 so many married and unmarried gentlemen are used to come to our cybercafé and had time pass. They chose our cybercafe as their hang-out place. 

In March 2020 we closed our business due to covid’19 and our owner went to the USA. 

Of all, I learned a lot from my Mama and Panthulu (our tuition teacher) regarding Life lessons.