How can I setup a time limited account so that a user is only allowed network access for a specific number of hours each month?
May 7 2018
In Emerald version 6 recurring monthly refresh of time and data is configured from Emerald Admin / Services / Service Types / Time Left & Time Renewal fields.
See Services / Service Types section of Emerald v6 admin guide for configuration details and requirements.
Dec 11 2004
You can setup a ServiceType that will limit users to a pre-defined maximum amount of access time per month using the Time Banking feature of EmeraldV4. Time Banking is a feature that must first be enabled in the RadiusV4 Administrator before account access time-limits are enforced. This feature is enabled on the RadiusV4 Administrator>Advanced page by 'checking' the Time Banking box. The RadiusV4 service must be restarted for the changes to take effect. The change takes effect immediatly when using RadiusV5 or higher.
To setup an EmeraldV4 ServiceType that will limit account access time you must define a monthly maximum allowance of access time. This can be found in the ServiceType Default Settings found on the ServiceType create/edit page in EmeraldV4>Admin>Accounting>ServiceTypes>[servicetype]>Time Left. If this is an edit to an existing ServiceType the change will affect only services added after the Time Left is defined. In this case you must define the Time Left field for all pre-existing services of this type before they will be limited to the default monthly time allowance. An alternative to manually defining the Time Left field per service would be to use a database query to bulk update all records of a specific service type. Please contact our support department for additional information.
Once Time Banking is enabled and defined the renewal behavior for your accounts must be defined in the global accounting configuration within Emerald Admin select Global / Accounting / Time Left monthly update. When set to 'Yes' accounts time banks are renewed automatically each month on their anniversary date as long as the account is active. When set to 'If not expired' accounts are renewed on their anniversary date provided the account is current, if the account is expired the account is renewed when payment is made.
Setting the option to 'No' disables automated updating of time left fields alltogeather.
Please be cautious while enabling this feature as Emerald 'catchs up' pre-existing accounts not having been automatically updated within more than a months time. This may initially allow customers more time than they are entitled if their accounts time left field had recently been manually increased by an operator.
