III. Wireless LAN

DrayTek routers have a facility to schedule when the wireless interface of the router is active, either to limit access in a home use environment or to improve security in a work environment. The scheduler of the router can be configured to operate on specified weekdays or even on specific dates if required.

The scheduler on DrayTek routers is able to turn off the wireless while the schedule entry is active, so the action of Force Down is required for the schedule entry to disable the wireless interface.

Each day on the router is counted as 00:00 to 23:59, at which point the schedule for the next day would take effect, so it's necessary to have schedule entries from 00:00 to 08:00 then 18:00 to 23:59 to turn off the wireless outside of office hours.

This example will demonstrate how to schedule the wireless (2.4GHz and 5GHz) on a DrayTek Vigor 2860n-Plus router so that it is only operational during office hours and is not available during weekends.

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To set up scheduling on the router, it is first necessary to set the time on the router; this is configured from [System Maintenance] > [Time and Date].

On that page, select the Use Internet Time button, tick Enable Daylight Saving and click OK to apply the change. Click Inquire Time to check whether the router now has the correct time, this can take up to 30 seconds to get the correct time.

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To set up the scheduling, go to [Application] > [Schedule] and select the first available index number by clicking the link:

In the schedule entry, the Start Date can be ignored unless it needs to begin on a specific date, the Start Time should be set to 00:00 so that it starts at midnight, set the Duration Time to 08:00. The Action of the schedule is Force Down. Under the How Often selection, select which week days the wireless would be disabled on - there will be a separate schedule for Saturday and Sunday so those are left blank in this schedule entry.

Click OK to save that schedule entry and go into the next schedule entry.

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This schedule entry will run from 18:00 until 23:59, it is also set to run only on weekdays:

Click OK to save that schedule entry and go into the next schedule entry.

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In this schedule entry, set the Start Time from 00:00 and the Duration Time as 23:59 so that it runs for a full day, this entry will be used to disable the wireless at the weekends so the How Often setting is configured for the Saturday and Sunday only:

Click OK to save that schedule entry.

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To apply the schedule, go to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] or [Wireless LAN] > [General Setup], on that page, enter the numbers of the schedule entries as shown on the [Application] > [Schedule] page, in this example, schedule entries 1, 2 and 3 have been used so they are entered as shown here:

Click OK to apply that change and the schedule will become active from the Start Time of the first relevant schedule (not immediately). The result will be that the wireless of the router is only available from 08:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, it would be disabled outside of those hours and at weekends.

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If the router is a dual-band model, go to [Wireless LAN (5GHz)] > [General Setup] and set the same schedule settings for that wireless interface so that the scheduling also applies to that:

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