ZyXEL Communications MES3500-24 User Manual

MES3500-24/24F User’s Guide

This chapter describes the IEEE 802.1x and MAC authentication methods.

Port authentication is a way to validate access to ports on the Switch to clients based on an external 
server (authentication server). The Switch supports the following methods for port authentication:

• IEEE 802.1x

2

 - An authentication server validates access to a port based on a username and 

password provided by the user.

• MAC - An authentication server validates access to a port based on the MAC address and 

password of the client.

Both types of authentication use the RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service, RFC 
2138, 2139) protocol to validate users. See 

 for more information on 

configuring your RADIUS server settings. 

Note: If you enable IEEE 802.1x authentication and MAC authentication on the same 

port, the Switch performs IEEE 802.1x authentication first. If a user fails to 

authenticate via the IEEE 802.1x method, then access to the port is denied.

The following figure illustrates how a client connecting to an IEEE 802.1x authentication enabled 
port goes through a validation process. The Switch prompts the client for login information in the 
form of a user name and password after the client responds to its identity request. When the client 

2.

 At the time of writing, IEEE 802.1x is not supported by all operating systems. See your operating system documentation. If 

your operating system does not support 802.1x, then you may need to install 802.1x client software.