User Types

Every User that logs in has what is called a User Type. NetSpy uses User Type settings to decide what user can and cannot do and to fine-tune pricing if needed: define payment multipliers for sales tax and discount rates.  

Though this screen is essential, it is not frequently visited once configured. 

Every user in your database must have a valid User Type, that is, the User Type must exist and correctly configured. . 

There are three user types automatically generated for you upon installation of the NetSpy software. ADMINISTRATOR, DEFAULT and GUEST.

Every user type has following settings:

Payment Multipliers

Checking - opens a window where payment multipliers can be specified. Payment Multipliers ultimately define how much users of this type should be paying. Its a good place to define sales tax or special rates. Price calculated for Business Object use will be multiplied by all values one by one before coming up with the final charge. For example, if user prints 5 pages and price for that printer is set to be $0.20 per page, the intermediary price price would be

5 x 0.20 = $1.00

After applying payment multipliers defined as shown on the left side ricing will become: $1.00 x (1.0825 0.9 ) = $0.97

If multiplier is given a name, it will show up on the user receipt as shown here. Payment Multipliers defined as described above so apply to all Business Objects for this User Type. If multiplier is unnamed, it still will be applied, but it will not be visible on the user's receipt. Read below to see how multipliers and other settings can be customized for particular Business Objects.

Read more about additional billing options for Business Objects.

Special Rates. It may be necessary to specify different payment multipliers and pricing for different Business Objects. For example, if you want to have a monthly subscription user type and those users are paying for computer time in advance, you do not want to charge them for the computer time, but for everything else (printers, drinks) they have to pay a regular price. To handle that you would create a new type "MONTHLY USER" for example, click and specify payment coefficient for the Computer to be 0 as shown below.

First add "Computer" to the list of Customized Business Objects.

Then double-click the newly added entry to open User Type Customization dialog.

Options that can be customized are: Pricing Options, Payment Multiplier and Associated Windows system account. Click "Customize" radio button to change default settings.

With this setting, all Business Objects will have a payment coefficient of 1 except for the computers which are free to uses of "MONTHLY USER" type.

Custom coefficients can also be applied to Business Objects on individual bases. In the above example with monthly subscription user if there is a machine that you still want charge some fees for (lets say it is equipped with high-resolution scanner that does not come free with a regular monthly plan) you can set a special rate for that machine only as shown below. 

Specifying special rate for individual Business Object overrides the special rate set for its type.

Pre-Created User Types

There are three user types generated automatically upon installation

ADMINISTRATOR - is an optional type created purely for maintenance purposes. You might want to set payment coefficient for this type to 0.0 as well as specify Windows System Administrative credentials for this type. Later you can create a user or assign this type to one of the existing users to let that him/her maintain your cafe.

DEFAULT - is a mandatory type, you absolutely have to specify correct pricing information as well as windows system logon information for this type. The reason correct setting for this type are crucial is because when new users sign up, they will be assigned type DEFAULT.

GUEST is a mandatory type, and, just as DEFAULT, it needs to be set up correctly, because all users that sign in anonymously as "guests" (or logged on remotely by you) need to be of this type.

PRE-PAID is an optional type. If did not exist, it will be automatically created for you the first time Pre-Paid user login option is used. Upon creation, its  attributes are derived from that of DEFAULT. Users are assigned PRE-PAID type automatically during Pre-Paid User Logon as described here. 

- is analogous to trusted user check box on "Users" page, except that when enabled, users of this type will never be prompted to ask the cashier before they can log in. Users will simply come, enter their credentials or login as "guests" and start working immediately. We generally do not recommend enabling this option for GUEST and DEFAULT users. This option is usually enabled for ADMINISTRATOR and STAFF, a user type sometimes created by cafe owners for their employees. 

You can have as many user types as you want, but only  DEFAULT and GUEST will be automatically assigned to the users. Other types you create, including ADMINISTRATOR, will have to be manually set to users you want special rules for as described here

- can be set for user that do not have to pay (Administrators, Employees). If this option is enabled, users of this type will be allowed to logon to in multiple workstations at the same time, using the same credentials . DEFAULT and GUST types by default do not have this option enabled and should always be kept that way.

- indicates that even if a user’s account expires, they will still be allowed to log in. If you don’t use the account expiration option, set this value to TRUE.

- if checked, this type will not appear on the "Users" screen and users of this type will be protected from type change by regular employees. This feature can be used to prevent regular employees who have access to the "Users" page from creating NetSpy users with administrative privilege. Hidden user types also do not show up in the list of types for remote logon types.

Mapping Cyber Cafe user accounts to Windows system accounts

This feature gives NetSpy its unique ability to utilize the power of standard Windows security management tools to control access rights and specify privileges for every User Type. Consider mapping DEFAULT and GUEST types to the system account with least possible privileges. You should certainly restrict access to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE as well as to other critical parts of your system. It might take some time to configure such user profile, but if created, it will greatly reduce your maintenance and support costs.

When users log in they enter their NetSpy credentials. Windows operating system does not recognize those credentials - NetSpy Server does, and if submitted credentials are correct, Server will securely send Windows system credentials to the client to unlock the workstation. Obviously, if information in this section is incorrect no one will be able to log in. Consider using roaming accounts for your users to simplify security management and maintenance efforts.

If the "Domain" field is left empty, or if "localhost" is specified, a name of the local computer will be used instead of a domain name.