Owner's Manual

Chapter 16. Network Login | 397
NETGEAR 8800 User Manual
Authenticating Users
Network login uses two types of databases to authenticate users trying to access the
network:
• RADIUS servers
• Local database
All three network login protocols, web-based, MAC-based, and 802.1x, support RADIUS
authentication. Only web-based and MAC-based network login support local database
authentication.
Note: If you are configuring both a network login RADIUS server and a
Local-User database, you can control which database is used first
for authentication in case authentication fails. For additional details,
see the command reference pages configure netlogin
authentication database-order and unconfigure
netlogin authentication database-order in the
NETGEAR 8800 Chassis Switch CLI Manual.
The network login authenticated entry is cleared when there is an FDB timeout. This applies
to web-based, MAC-Based, and 802.1x authentication.
Local Database Authentication
You can configure the switch to use its local database for web-based and MAC-based
network login authentication. 802.1x network login does not support local database
authentication. Local authentication essentially mimics the functionality of the remote
RADIUS server locally. This method of authentication is useful in the following situations:
• If both the primary and secondary (if configured) RADIUS servers timeout or are unable
to respond to authentication requests
• If no RADIUS servers are configured
• If the RADIUS server used for network login authentication is disabled
If any of the above conditions are met, the switch checks for a local user account and
attempts to authenticate against that local account.
For local authentication to occur, you must configure the switch’s local database with a user
name and password for network login. NETGEAR recommends a maximum of 64 local
accounts. If you need more than 64 local accounts, NETGEAR recommends using RADIUS
for authentication. You can also specify the destination VLAN to enter upon a successful
authentication.