The Hindu Business Line : Restricted access

It is possible to control user access for a particular time of the day. If the machine is part of Windows domain, you will have to make the settings in the domain, not the workstation. In the domain controller, you will need to create a group policy for setting the login access restriction. You can also have the user logged out when the logon time expires.

To set a logon time restriction for an individual user in the domain, first logon to your domain controller with admin rights, then go to Start - "Control Panel" - "Administrative Tools" - "Active Directory Users and Computers". In the left column, please expand the domain where you want to create a group policy. Click on the Users container. On the right column, right-click on the user you want to modify and select Properties. Select the Account tab. Click on the "Logon Hours" button. Adjust the hours to either allow or deny the user the ability to logon at that time of day.

For Automatic logoff of the user, you will need to create a new group policy or you can modify the existing one. To create a new group policy, please Go to start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - "Active Directory Users and Computers". In the left hand column, right-click on the domain and select Properties. Select the "Group Policy" tab. Click the New button to create a new policy. Name your new policy on these lines `Logoff user when time expires'. Select it and click the Edit button.

This will bring up the Group Policy editor. In the left hand column, please expand Computer Configuration - Windows Settings - Security Settings - Local Policies - Security Options. In the right-hand column, doubleclick on `Automatically logoff users when logon time expires', check the box for `Define this policy setting' and set it to Enabled. If the machine is not a part of windows domain, you can use a command line tool "Net User" for giving access to an individual user for a particular time during the day. For executing that command, first Logon to that machine with administrative rights. Go to start - Run. In that type "cmd or command." The command prompt will open. In this window, please type net user "user account" /time: "logon times"

The user account will have to be the user name you want to restrict and the logon time will be the duration and the day (e.g.: net user "test" /time:M-F,13:00-14:00) During this time, i.e between 13:00 and 14:00 hours, only user test has rights to access that workstation.

For more information, please refer to this URL: http://news.softpedia.com/news/ Restrict-Logon-Time-in-Windows- XP-49441.shtml

SOLUTION BY M. SAMPATH

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