freeRADIUS Expiration attribute and unix-time stamp

[Jeep Or Die]

Hello Everyone.

I am new to *nix in general, and so when I ran across unix-time for the
first time, I took the time to read up on it.  I have created a wifi
captured portal system using freeRADIUS, Mysql and Open BlueDragon, but I am
having a problem with the Expiration attribute in freeRADIUS.  Admittedly,
the problem is probably DEU (defective end-user), so I am hoping someone
here can help me out.

Do I have to use the Unix-time for the Expiration attribute, or do I have a
more human-readable option?  I tried various standard database and
programming timestamp values, but freeRADIUS always returns a "can't parse
date" error whenever I use anything but unix-time.

If I must use unix time, which I understand is GMT zulu, should I pass my
expiration dates to the database in GMT zulu as well? Is freeRADIUS taking
my (Pacific Time) offset into account which is set on the server?

I took the time to write some time conversion code in CFML, so I am ready to
go as soon as I can figure out what the freeRADIUS server expects of me.  I
spent a lot of time the last couple days looking around online, and
subsuquently learned quite a bit more on this subject, but never found a
solution to my problem.

 OS: Ubuntu Server 8.04
freeRADIUS version: 1.1.7-1build4 (the version apt installs for Hardy)
mySQL: 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5

Thanks in advance, and have a great Sunday night.

- mt
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