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EAPOL Timeout
Determines the time for retransmission of Request Identity EAPOL frames.
Valid values are in the range 1 to 65535 seconds. This has no effect for MAC-based ports.
Aging Period
This setting applies to the following modes, i.e. modes using the Port Security functionality to secure MAC
addresses:
• MAC
-Based Auth.
When the NAS module uses the Port Security module to secure MAC addresses, the Port Security module
needs to check for activity on the MAC address in question at regular intervals and free resources if no
activity is seen within a given period of time. This parameter controls exactly this period and can be set to a
number between 10 and 1000000 seconds.
For ports in MAC-based Auth. mode, reauthentication doesn't cause direct communication between the
switch and the client, so this will not detect whether the client is still attached or not, and the only way to
free any resources is to age the entry.
Hold Time
This setting applies to the following modes, i.e. modes using the Port Security functionality to secure MAC
addresses:
• MAC
-Based Auth.
If a client is denied access - either because the RADIUS server denies the client access or because the RADIUS
server request times out (according to the timeout specified on the "Configuration→Security→AAA" page)
-
the client is put on hold in the Unauthorized state. The hold timer does not count during an on-going
authentication.
The switch will ignore new frames coming from the client during the hold time.
The Hold Time can be set to a number between 10 and 1000000 seconds.
Port Configuration
The table has one row for each port on the switch and a number of columns, which are:
Port
The port number for which the configuration below applies.
Admin State
If NAS is globally enabled, this selection controls the port's authentication mode. The following modes are
available:
Force Authorized
In this mode, the switch will send one EAPOL Success frame when the port link comes up, and any client on
the port will be allowed network access without authentication.
Force Unauthorized
In this mode, the switch will send one EAPOL Failure frame when the port link comes up, and any client on
the port will be disallowed network access.
802.1X
In the 802.1X-world, the user is called the supplicant, the switch is the authenticator, and the RADIUS server
is the authentication server. The authenticator acts as the man-in-the-middle, forwarding requests and
responses between the supplicant and the authentication server. Frames sent between the supplicant and
switches are special 802.1X frames, known as EAPOL (EAP Over LANs) frames. EAPOL frames encapsulate
EAP PDUs (RFC3748). Frames sent between the switch and RADIUS server are RADIUS packets. RADIUS
packets also encapsulate EAP PDUs together with other attributes like the switch's IP address, name, and the
supplicant's port number on the switch. EAP is very flexible, in that it allows for different authentication
methods, like MD5-Challenge, PEAP, and TLS. The important thing is that the authenticator (the switch)
doesn't need to know which authentication method the supplicant and the authentication server are using,
or how many information exchange frames are needed for a particular method. The switch simply
