More than one schedule added to a user?

[kllngtme]

Currently I'm on version 4.6.1.6.

Is there a way to add more than one Work-time Policy to a user? I already have the user working as I'd like, my son isn't able to get to video games/entertainment during school. I'd like to add another schedule applied for bedtime to the same user.

Is there a work around if this currently hasn't been implemented? Do I need to create 2 users with the same IP's but just named differently?


Thanks ahead of time!

[support200]

You can define Free Time on 'Policy > Free Time'. Except the free-time what you define there, it becomes work-time. And you can define multiple free-time there.

You also can define Group Specific Free Time on a group edit page.

And there's Block Time on a policy. This is a bit different as it blocks everything except whitelisted domains. Probably, this could be what you want for your son's bedtime.

[kllngtme]

Is there a Feature Request to have this added then? I think this would be pretty useful to people who want to block different things on different schedules.

[support200]

Not following you. I already told you that you can make your bedtime to be in work-time. If you are talking about another one, you can explain it in detail.

[kllngtme]

I just worked on this for a while so I apologize if this is so long.

What you're asking doesn't allow for disabling rules very easily unless deleting the entire schedule for the block time and readding it. I spun up a new server to try and tackle your idea which I believe suggests to swap what is used as the "Freetime" vs Work time? The limitations are pretty big when working this way. Everyone using nxfilter for dns requests will be in this new schedule to block things rather than allow things, etc.

What I'm requesting is big for a software update but would allow for more detailed scheduling control for clients as well as filtering based on categories. Currently the limitations with the scheduling can make it very confusing and limited.

Some questions first:
1. If a user has a policy assigned to "Freetime" and another policy assigned to "Worktime", does the user ever follow a Freetime schedule?
2. If the Freetime runs outside of those 2 set policy schedules(Freetime and Worktime), does that mean nxfilter only allows for filtering differences between 2 different times?

If each Block Time is within a policy and you can't assign a user to more than one policy, then it doesn't exactly follow a schedule to block differently based on different times schedules.
If there's a way to have a user be assigned to multiple policies instead of just one at a time, the user won't be confined to one schedule of how they are being blocked.

For example, for just One User, I want to my schedule to be as follows:
08:00-15:00, block games and youtube
15:00-16:00, start allowing youtube but still block games
16:00-21:00, allow everything but porn and malicious,
21:00-08:00, Block Everything

I'm having issues trying to do this it seems. I can't assign a user to float in between policies based on different times of the day?

[support200]

Your policy is too complicated. Most people need only 2 policies. One for work-time, the other for free-time.

You know you can define your own Free Time on 'Policy > Free Time'. At default, they are 13:00 ~ 1400 of Monday to Friday as Lunch Time and 18:00 ~ 09:00 of Monday to Friday as Closed and Satday to Sunday as Holiday. When you set a free-time policy for a user it works for these free-time slots. You can add or redefine these free-time slots.

And you also can define group specific free-time for fine tuning.

The policy specific block-time is different. It just for blocking everything. Maybe you can use it for 21:00 ~ 08:00. But for the rest of time, you can set only 2 policies. Why don't you just allow games for 15:00 ~ 16:00?

21:00 ~ 15:00, work-time policy
15:00 ~ 21:00, free-time policy
21:00 ~ 08:00, policy specific block-time in the work-time policy

So, you can add a free-time slot as 15:00 ~ 21:00 everyday on 'Policy > Free Time' and delete the other slots and define a free-time policy allowing everything but porn and malicious and set it as the free-time policy for your user.

[kllngtme]

Your policy is too complicated.

lol. I didn't think it was. It's just not doable now which is why I asked if there was a feature request. A user can't be assigned a true schedule the way it is currently and it's limited by design. If I could make schedules and the users are assigned policies that will change based on schedule the usage of this app explodes for me and a lot of people I'm sure. To be able to create schedules of different blocking instances at different times would be great!

[support200]

We have been using the current Free Time system for 10 years. And it's inherited from other commercial webfilter products. So, it's a pretty standard way in this business.

You just think about your own specific case. You need 3 policies for different time slots every day. But we need something general which can deal with different time slots according to weekdays. And we also need to think about Group and User relationship. This is not for home having only 3 or 4 users. Many of our customers deal with several thousand users. They don't define free time user by user.

And the current one is complicated enough already. We saw people not understanding how to use it if they don't have enough experience with this kind of software. You better find something better for your use case.

[kllngtme]

Yea, I had a feeling... Looks like I'll be using a mix of nxfilter with pfsense. bah...

thank you for the quick response.