Setting Access Restrictions

A better way to define which devices can access the Internet when...

Steps to adding access restrictions:

    Please be patient and understanding as this is a radically new capability in YAMon... it is working well on my routers but might need some tweaking on yours

  1. First, update your router firmware to a current version of DD-WRT, Turris, OpenWrt / LEDE, GNU/Linux, Asuswrt-Merlin, Tomato, etc.

    Apparently some more recent builds of DD-WRT have broken the cron scheduling capabilities... AFAIK, DD-WRT build #41517 was the last one in which cron was working

  2. Install or upgrade your version of YAMon by re-running `/opt/install.sh` in a PuTTY (or equivalent terminal app) window on your router. Or by downloading the latest installer script (v4.0.7)
    (NB - v4.0.4 or higher is required for Access Restrictions)
  3. In the setup/install script, you must choose to enable the optional database integration feature

    This is necessary so that your access control rules can be saved between this web interface and your router.

  4. Once you have YAMon installed and running, open the reports and go to the `Devices` tab and organize your devices into logical groups (e.g., by family member or by device function/location, etc.). You get to pick the groupings and names.
  5. In a PuTTY (or equivalent terminal app) window, run `/opt/YAMon4/check-network.sh`

    This will sync your group names from the reports to your `users.js` file. It is probably wise at this time to review the contents of `users.js` to ensure that things were updated properly

  6. Reload the YAMon reports (by entering <ctrl>+F5 and go to the `Devices` tab to ensure once again that all of your devices are grouped properly.
    Repeat these 3 steps until you are happy with the groupings.
  7. Still in the reports, change to the `Access Restrictions` tab and click the `Set/update...` button

    That link will bring you back to this page. You must open this page from the reports so that your defined groups and access control rules are loaded properly into the table below. If you open the link directly, the table will contain a default set of example restrictions.

  8. Create/update your rules using the interface below
  9. Once you have finished tweaking your rules, go back to your router and run `/opt/YAMon4/start.sh` to sync and enable the rules.
  10. Send questions and comments to questions@usage-monitoring

Instructions:

  • To add a new access restriction rule, click the green plus sign at the right end of this table
  • To edit an existing rule, click the edit icon at the right end of the row

  • To save the changes to a rule, click the save icon . The icon will appear only after you've made a change.
  • To delete a rule, first click the edit icon and the click the delete icon

The table below currently contains a sample set of `dummy` access rules because the page has been opened without a valid database key - likely because you opened this page directly rather than clicking the button on the Access Restrictions tab in the YAMon reports or perhaps you have not yet enabled the database integration option in YAMon. For the time-being, you can use the sample data to get an idea of how you can create, edit and save access restriction rules. Any edits you make will actually get saved! If you delete all of the rules, they will revert to a predefined default state when the page is reloaded. .

Once you have enabled the database integration option and open this page from your YAMon reports, your rules and groups will appear in the table below.

Access Restrictions
Restriction Name Restricts access on the following days & months Between For
    Notes:
  1. Proceed with caution because an overly broad rule could inadvertently prevent all devices from accessing your router!

    If this occurs, unplugging your USB drive and manually rebooting your router should get you back in.

  2. Under the `For` column, the `Unknown` group is always checked and disabled because YAMon adds new devices into the `Unknown` group (so this will catch anyone trying to circumvent your access rules by spoofing their MAC address)
  3. I have added a number of aliases in the installation directory which help block and unblock devises. See YAMon Aliases for details.
  4. At least one of your entries in the table above has not been saved due to problems with your currently selected options. If you reload or leave this page, those changes will be lost

 

 

 

 


Current progress

I now need other users to figure out what I got wrong!

Currently, every time that you reload this page, the access restriction rules will reset to a known starting point because, I am still focussed on the UI to define and edit the entries.

Next, I will load existing rules from the database (and any save changes back into the database).

The page now loads and saves entries to the database (with the known issues identified below).

I am now focussing on the server & router side functionality to sync the rules in the database with the router (so you'll soon be able to test this new function).

Known issues in the current UI

Please send comments and constructive feedback to questions@usage-monitoring.com

Thanks!!!