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Cisco IE 2000 Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Configuring IEEE 802.1x Port-Based Authentication
Finding Feature Information
Your software release may not support all the features documented in this chapter. For the latest feature
information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support an d Cisco software image
support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on
Cisco.com is not required.
Restrictions for Configuring IEEE 802.1x Port-Based
Authentication
To use this feature, the switch must be running the LAN Base image.
Information About Configuring IEEE 802.1x Port-Based
Authentication
IEEE 802.1x Port-Based Authentication
The standard defines a client-server-based access control and authentication protocol to prevent
unauthorized clients from connecting to a LAN through publicly accessible ports. The au thentication
server authenticates each client connected to a switch port before making available any switch or LAN
services.
Until the client is authenticated, IEEE 802.1x access control allows only Extensible Authentication
Protocol over LAN (EAPOL), Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), and Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
traffic through the port to which the client is connected. After authentication, norm al traffic passes
through the port.