First off, prepositions are tricky words, and it's hard to talk about all the ways they can be used.
That said...
at
We can use at night to mean during the nighttime:
I was there at night.
(notice how I did not say "at the night," which is what you wrote in your question).
in
We can use in the night to mean during the nighttime or at various times during the night:
Hyenas prowl in the night. (at night would work, too)
into
We use into the night to say that something continues for a long time after sunset:
The partygoers reveled late into the night.
on
You are correct, we don't usually say on night or on the night. However, if we expand the phrase, and stipulate which nights we are talking about, then "on (the) nights when..." is a relatively common construct:
The band liked crashing at our place on nights we played at Live Bay.
I try to go to bed early on Sunday nights.
On the nights when we hear the ice cream truck, we'll go outside and buy ice cream.
Now, let's combine some of these together:
We usually lock the front door at night. However, our roommate Micheal is an actor, and he sometimes works late into the night. On the nights Micheal hasn't come home before midnight, we leave the front door unlocked, in case he has forgotten his key.
Most of the examples sound fine, but these examples sound strange to me, and would make me believe the speaker is not native:
-
06. One night in the middle of the night, I'm hearing dripping
This example sounds strange to me because progressives are rarely one-time events. If this is an unusual event, you might say "I heard dripping." However, if the speaker is about to switch into a direct, informal narrative in the historical present, it could sound perfectly natural, if informal, like this "One night, in the middle of the night, I'm hearing this dripping, so I get out of and look at the bathroom sink, and guess what I find there..." But in standard usage, I think "I heard" is preferable, because "One night" expects a past tense sentence.
- 09. Tim, are you wanting any fruit?
"Do you want" or "Would you like" would sound much more natural to me.
Best Answer
"Front" alone does not mean before, but the prepositional phrase "In front of" can usually be replaced with "before"
"Before" can be mean either in front of something in space, or earlier in time. It is quite common in both roles.
"Prior to" is only used for something earlier in time.
"In front of" is only used for something earlier in space.
So "before" has the broadest usage, and can be used in place of "prior to" or "in front of", but you can't use "in front of" in place of "prior to"