ZyXEL Communications GS-4012F, User Manual

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GS-4012F User’s Guide
Chapter 16 Port Authentication 113
C
H A P T E R
16
Port Authentication
This chapter describes the 802.1x authentication method and RADIUS server connection
setup.
16.1 Overview
IEEE 802.1x is an extended authentication protocol
2
that allows support of RADIUS (Remote
Authentication Dial In User Service, RFC 2138, 2139) for centralized user profile and
accounting management on a network RADIUS server.
16.1.1 RADIUS
RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) authentication is a popular protocol
used to authenticate users by means of an external server instead of (or in addition to) an
internal device user database that is limited to the memory capacity of the device. In essence,
RADIUS authentication allows you to validate an unlimited number of users from a central
location.
Figure 46 RADIUS Server
16.2 Configuring Port Authentication
For network security, enable port authentication to check the identity of the user before access
to the network is allowed. The switch authenticates users against the remote RADIUS server
you specify.
To enable port authentication:
• activate IEEE802.1x security (both on the switch and the port(s))
• configure the RADIUS server settings.
2. At the time of writing, only Windows XP of the Microsoft operating systems supports it. See the Microsoft web site
for information on other Windows operating system support. For other operating systems, see its documentation.
If your operating system does not support 802.1x, then you may need to install 802.1x client software.