Time logging xp users

[Aaron Morris]

We have a bunch of xp machines connected to a fedora server acting as pdc. I want to restrict users to different amounts of time per day, and so far have netlogon and logoff scripts running that update a perl script on the server loggin the logon and logoff.

This script in turn updates how many hours they have used. What I want now is a way of kicking the loggin out the users from the xp machines if they reach there time limit...the way I thought to do this is have a perl script running every minute (from cron) that checks there time left against a database. If they have reached there time limit it runs a remote script on the xp machine that logs them out and the disables there account.

Am I thinking along the right lines or am I barking up completely the wrong tree? I just can't think of a more elegant solution....any suggestions welcome

[falko]

Sounds good. Maybe Till knows of a more elegant solution as he's the PDC expert here...

[Aaron Morris]

Seems to be working ok so far, I have written a small c# server that resides on each xp machine and waits for a connection. The perl script then uses sockets to connect to the xp machine that requires shutting down and initiates the logoff by having the xp machine call the windows cmd shutdown command from a batch file.

[falko]

Do you mind posting the solution here (or write a howto about it)? I think this is a very interesting solution...

[Aaron Morris]

Yer I plan to release all source code/files etc.

Bare in mind its a very custom solution but i'm sure it will be adaptable and usable by other folks.