3com 4210 PWR 9-Port 3CR17341-91-ME User Manual

MAC authentication provides a way for authenticating users based on ports and 
MAC addresses, without requiring any client software to be installed on the hosts. 
Once detecting a new MAC address, it initiates the authentication process. During 
authentication, the user does not need to enter username or password manually.

You can implement MAC authentication locally or on a RADIUS server.When 
combined with RADIUS Authentication, this feature is referred to as RADIUS 
Authenticated Device Access, or RADA. 

After determining the authentication method, users can select one of the 
following types of user name as required:

■

MAC address mode, where the MAC address of a user serves as both the user 
name and the password.

■

Fixed mode, where user names and passwords are configured on a switch in 
advance. In this case, the user name, the password, and the limits on the total 
number of user names are the matching criterion for successful authentication. 
For details, refer to “AAA Configuration” on page 245 for information about 
local user attributes.

When authentications are performed on a RADIUS server, the switch serves as a 
RADIUS client and completes MAC authentication in combination of the RADIUS 
server.

■

In MAC address mode, the switch sends the MAC addresses detected to the 
RADIUS server as both the user names and passwords.

■

In fixed mode, the switch sends the user name and password previously 
configured for the user to the RADIUS server for authentication.

A user can access a network upon passing the authentication performed by the 
RADIUS server.

When authentications are performed locally, users are authenticated by switches. 
In this case,

■

In MAC address mode, the local user name to be configured is the MAC 
address of an access user. Hyphens must or must not be included depending 
on the format configured with the mac-authentication authmode 
usernameasmacaddress usernameformat command; otherwise, the 
authentication will fail.

■

In fixed mode, all users’ MAC addresses are automatically mapped to the 
configured local passwords and usernames.