Time Periods

TimeperiodsWeb Gateway and UTM have a powerful concept of Time Periods. By default, there is a single time period called "Any Time", but you can create additional time periods that define times that are important to your organisation. For example, you can create a "Lunch Times" period that applies from 12:30 until 13:30 on week days, and a "Weekends" period that applies during weekends. Once a time period has been created, it can be used to alter the behaviour of various aspects of the system during the times it is active. For example, using the Web Proxy and Filter module, you could restrict access to social networking websites through most of the day, but allow access to them at lunch times.

To create and edit time periods, click the Time Periods tab at the top of the page. Use the Create button to create a new time period, or right click an existing period to edit it. As well as giving it a short descriptive name, you can also leave a longer comment to document your configuration. Specify the start and end time and the days on which the period should be active. Click Add time if you want to make the period to activate at several different times - for example, you may want a "Lunch Times" period to be active on week days from 12:00 until 13:00, but from 12:00 - 14:00 on weekends.

Time periods may overlap, so that several could be active at the same time. In order to determine which settings to use when there are multiple periods active, the periods are prioritised in the order they are shown, with the periods at the top having priority over those lower down. You can change the priorities of the periods by dragging them up and down the list.