3com 8807 User Guide

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P
ORTAL
 C
ONFIGURATION
Portal Overview
Introduction
Portal is also known as portal website, and Portal authentication is also known as 
the Web authentication. Its major advantages are:
Users need not install any client software;
It is powerful in its ability to support new services. With the help of Portal 
authentication, the operators can provide services such as information query, 
online shopping based on Portal.
The principle of Portal is: Unauthenticated users can access only specified website 
servers, and any other access is redirected to the Portal server unconditionally. 
Users can access the Internet only after they are successfully authenticated.
Portal Structure
The basic network diagram of Portal is shown in Figure 65. It is composed of four 
elements: authentication client, access device, Portal server, and 
authentication/accounting server.
Figure 65   Portal structure
Authentication client is the Internet Web Browser where the HTTP/HTTPS 
protocols run. All the HTTP requests are submitted to the Portal server before 
the user passes the authentication.
Access device unconditionally forces the HTTP requests of authentication client 
to the Portal server before the user passes the authentication. The access 
device interacts with the authentication/accounting server to implement the 
authentication and accounting function. Access devices refer to 3Com Switch 
8800 Family series switches in this book.
Access devices
Authentication client
Portal server
Authentication/Accounting server
Authentication client
Authentication server
Access devices
Access devices
Authentication client
Portal server
Authentication client
Portal server
Authentication/Accounting server
Authentication client
Authentication client
Access devices
Access devices
Authentication client
Portal server
Authentication client
Portal server
Authentication/Accounting server
Authentication client
Authentication server
Access devices
Access devices
Authentication client
Portal server
Authentication client
Portal server
Authentication/Accounting server
Authentication client
Authentication client