One thing we haven't mentioned so far in our discussion of firewall rules is that sometimes we do not want rules to take effect all the time. They don't have to, though, and that's when scheduling comes in handy. Each schedule can have a single or multiple time ranges, and can be applied to one or more rules.

To begin creating schedules, navigate to Firewall | Schedules. The main Schedules page will display a table with any previously created schedules. To create a new entry, click on the Add button.

The Edit page is simple and only has two sections. The first is Schedule Information, and in this section you can configure options. In the Configured Ranges section, the already-defined ranges for the rule appear.

The first option is Schedule Name. Here you enter the name, which can consist only of letters, numbers, and the underscore character. You can also enter a non-parsed description in the Description field. In the Month drop-down box, you can select the month that will appear in the Date section (selecting a month here does not cause the rule to only take effect in a specific month, however). Time ranges can consist of individual dates or days of the week. You can click on an individual date on the calendar to select a specific date, or you can click on a weekday header to select all instances of a weekday.

If you need something more granular than just days of a week or a specific day, you can select a time range in the Time section. The allowed fields are Start Hrs, Start Mins, Stop Hrs, and Stop Mins, and the time is in 24-hour format. Note that you can only select minutes in 15-minute increments (0, 15, 30, and 45). You can also enter a non-parsed description in the Time range description field, and when you are done, you can click on the Add Time button. You can also click on Clear selection to clear the fields. Once you click on the Add Time button, you should see the time range in the Configured Ranges section. You can create additional time ranges by selecting additional dates or days of the week and time ranges, and clicking on the Add Time button again. Existing ranges can be deleted by clicking on the Delete button for an entry. When you are done, click on the Save button at the bottom of the page.