In brief
Hotspot-Box has no scheduled on/off. Night hours in a dormitory, office breaks or café closing time are handled with session length, coupon validity and scheduling on the access point side.
"The guest network should close at 23:00 and open at 07:00." A frequent request from dormitory managers, office administrators and café owners. The honest answer first: Hotspot-Box has no scheduled on/off feature tied to a time window. The box does not "switch off" the guest network. But the intended result, guests being unable to reach the internet at certain hours, can be achieved with three tools you already have. This post explains the three tools and three typical scenarios.
Why the box does not have it
The box's job is verification, plan enforcement and record keeping. The device that physically broadcasts the network is the access point (AP), and most APs already offer SSID scheduling. Doing the same job in two places creates conflicts: the box says "open", the AP says "closed", and the guest does not know which one to blame. We chose to keep the job in one place. The box already carries time on the record side: every session's start and end is written; whenever the network runs, the record is complete.
The three tools
1. Session length
Inside the plan you set how long one session may last at most. When it ends, the guest lands back on the portal. This solves the "connected forever" problem and puts a natural limit near closing time. If the café closes at 22:00 and the session is 2 hours, a guest who signs in after 20:00 has a session that ends around closing at the latest.
2. Coupon validity
Coupons are generated with a validity period. When it expires, the coupon can no longer be used to sign in. Generating coupons to match the length of a stay is the best-known use; the same logic works as "today's coupon" or "this week's coupon". If coupons are your only sign-in method, you prevent new sign-ins after a certain hour simply by stopping the hand-out.
3. SSID scheduling on the AP
This is where the real time window lives. Most AP controllers have a "broadcast this SSID during these hours" setting. If the guest SSID goes off at 23:00, guests do not see the network; the box is unaffected and the staff VLAN keeps working. In the morning the SSID comes back and the box greets guests again. This setting depends on the AP brand; since the box works independently of the AP, which brand you pick does not matter to the box.
| Tool | Where it is set | What it gives you | Its limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session length | Box, plan | A connection lasts at most X hours | Tied to duration, not the clock |
| Coupon validity | Box, coupon generation | Coupon valid for a set period | Only affects coupon sign-in |
| SSID scheduling | AP controller | Network invisible at set hours | Depends on the AP brand |
Scenario 1: night quiet hours in a dormitory
Need: guest network off between 00:00 and 07:00. Solution: turn the guest SSID off during those hours in the AP controller. In the box keep the Long-stay template (15/5 Mbps, 24-hour session, 3 devices, 5 GB/day) and 7-day device memory; when the SSID returns in the morning, students do not request a new code, device memory takes over. Note: MAC randomisation on phones can break device memory; telling students to turn it off for the dormitory network makes life easier.
Scenario 2: break time in an office
Need: the guest network runs only during working hours; the staff network is always on. Solution: staff and guests on separate VLANs; the guest SSID broadcasts 08:00 to 19:00 on the AP. In the box, the Standard template for guests and the Staff template for employees (20/10 Mbps, 10-hour session, 30-day device memory). A visitor arriving after hours does not see the network; staff are unaffected. For the meeting room, generating coupons that expire in the afternoon covers "our visitor stays until 14:00".
Scenario 3: closing time at a café
Need: we close at 22:00, nobody should connect from outside after that. Solution: the SSID goes off at 22:30 (half an hour of slack for the last bill); in the Standard template the 2-hour session and 15-minute idle timeout already drop guests who have left their table. Since there is no "stop hand-out" option for SMS sign-in, the time limit stays on the AP; the box does not block a sign-in after closing, but with no SSID there is no sign-in.
What to tell guests
If there is a time limit, add one sentence to the terms of use on the portal: "The guest network is available between 07:00 and 23:00." Put the same sentence on the room information card in a dormitory or on the reception desk in an office. A guest who cannot see the network at night then suspects a rule, not a fault, and does not call reception.
Do not do this
- Powering the box off at night and on in the morning. The record chain is kept per day and the timestamp routine depends on the box running. Keep the box on; let the AP close the network.
- Scheduling in two places. With SSID scheduling on the AP, adding port scheduling on the modem or switch makes troubleshooting harder.
- Trying to close by quota instead of by clock. A quota is a data limit, not a time limit.
Important: records continue even when the internet drops
A misconception when planning hours: "I turned the AP off, so the box is doing nothing." True, with no guests there are no new sessions. But the box keeps working: it closes the day's record, links the hash chain and obtains the timestamp. If the internet connection is down at that moment, the stamp is queued and obtained when the connection returns; the panel shows it as a "pending day". That is why the box should never be powered off.
For questions about network layout and VLAN separation see the FAQ; for how the AP and the box work together see Box + Software. To set up your own schedule together, get in touch.