Controling user time consumption of online activity

[JPHebert]

Hey folks,

Community version user here - and before I pull a trigger and upgrade to home basic or pro, want to validate the scenario:

• Got a problematic teenager at home, gotta limit online usage
• Wish to set times allowed and not allowed (bedtime/get up rules)
• Limited the # of hours consumed in a day and cap that teenager, with the option of adding more time if/when needed

Can I do this with the bandwidth control app paired with the policy manager? I would mind using the captive portal as well if needed, I'm not the one being controlled after all Would set up a SSID & VLAN for said troublemaker.

Thanks!

[RonV42]

When my kids were younger I created a policy stack for the kids, no need for the VLAN just had to have their MAC addresses set to "device" vs "random" on their phones and other devices. Kids normally didn't know about that setting. I then created a tag for their devices. During the day/homework time they would get full bandwidth, other times they were metered after so many GB's into a lower QOS rule, after 10:00 pm they would get many services blocked though the application control app. Lots of options with the tools provided in the home pro.

[gravenscroft]

Can I do this with the bandwidth control app paired with the policy manager?

Short answer: yup, absolutely.

Policy Manager is the only NG Firewall app that has time-of-day and day-of-week settings, so in order to do this in an automated fashion you'll have to use it.

A couple of knowledge base articles that may be helpful for you:

• Use time-based rules - This is a general overview of how to use the time-based settings in Policy Manager.
• Creating time-based access policies - This one is more specific: how to create a limited-time window (such as 60 minutes of internet access). This approach isn't completely vetted; we've heard anecdotally that it works and the logic is sound, but we can't 100% guarantee it.
• Bandwidth Control: Quotas and the Penalty Box - This one details using Bandwidth Control's quota feature to set a data cap for a host. Once that cap is reached, you can take various actions against them.

[JPHebert]

Thanks for the complete answer!

Short answer: yup, absolutely.

Policy Manager is the only NG Firewall app that has time-of-day and day-of-week settings, so in order to do this in an automated fashion you'll have to use it.

A couple of knowledge base articles that may be helpful for you:

• Use time-based rules - This is a general overview of how to use the time-based settings in Policy Manager.
• Creating time-based access policies - This one is more specific: how to create a limited-time window (such as 60 minutes of internet access). This approach isn't completely vetted; we've heard anecdotally that it works and the logic is sound, but we can't 100% guarantee it.
• Bandwidth Control: Quotas and the Penalty Box - This one details using Bandwidth Control's quota feature to set a data cap for a host. Once that cap is reached, you can take various actions against them.

[gravenscroft]

Happy to help!

[sky-knight]

NGFW cannot control how many hours someone gets online. But it can control things based on a schedule.

I suggest you build your policy rules based on usernames, and use the username field on your devices tab to assign devices to your kids' names. That way your policies are based on names, and you can easily add new devices to the appropriate policy just by putting the correct kid's name on it.

[jcoehoorn]

• Limited the # of hours consumed in a day and cap that teenager, with the option of adding more time if/when needed

I've said this a number of times before, but any service that claims to do this is LYING! (And yes, there are quite a few commercial services that make this lie, but have no mistake: it IS a lie.) Because of the way the internet works, the information needed to filter based on time used is not available at the network level!

For simple examples in both directions, I could pull up the text of a novel in a web browser and spend all day "online" reading it, where the only information available to the network was the one initial request. Or I could open Facebook in the background, never look at it, but all the background updates and tracking Facebook does would make it look to the network like I goofed off all day.

There are many other examples like these... in fact, it's much more normal than not for the actual time interacting with an online resource to be wildly different from what the network sees.