Usage time quotas

[birbilis]

When there are multiple users and few machines available, it would be useful if time quotas could be set for a user or a group of users if you have such groups (per day, or per week, or per month [whatever admin prefers]).

The broker would log time against those quotas I guess (assuming one can't bypass it to connect to sender directly), but a sender should be able to drop a connection once maximum usage time is reached for a certain user (btw, if a user can connect to multiple machines [think you don't implement such a thing though], any connection's time should count).

It would be nice if the Agent on the client's system could show current usage time (not sure if it can somehow show it over the RGS display or if that would limit performance, or if it can tell RGS client to somehow update its titlebar or something periodically) and also how much time is remaining and the user's quota type (per day/week/etc.) so that they can plan their time

[birbilis]

found an interesting solution that one could combine with CABS too
http://www.isdecisions.com/products/userlock/restrict-user-logon-hours-force-logoff-windows-domain.htm
it is commercial but seems to be quite cheap (http://www.isdecisions.com/products/userlock/pricing.htm) and also mentions educational/non-profit discount (looking to use it for a university lab)

[birbilis]

btw, at
http://www.isdecisions.com/products/userlock/restrict-user-logon-hours-force-logoff-windows-domain.htm
writes:

Windows does provide logon time restriction functionality on a user-by-user basis but there is no way to manage it by group for multiple users

Not sure where that functionality is provided in Windows, but could possible tap to it programmatically to apply to more users, similar to how UserLock does

[birbilis]

also found this one after looking for parental control software that might do the same job: Time Boss Pro - http://nicekit.com/computer-time-limit-free-pro.htm seems to be able to do similar (judging from screenshot and their FAQ) but more home-oriented than enterprise (one license handles 3 PCs - can share time limits on multiple PCs by making sure user's "Full name" is the same on each and having the s/w keep its db/settings on a [server] share)