IEEE 802.1x client using EAP-TLS certificate

Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) Transport Layer Security (TLS), or EAP-TLS, is an authentication protocol that supports the use of smart cards and certificates. You have the option of using EAP-TLS with both WPA with RADIUS and IEEE 802.1x modes if you have an external RADIUS server on the network to support it.

Important If you want to use IEEE 802.1x mode with EAP-TLS certificates for authentication and authorization of clients, you must have an external RADIUS server and a Public Key Authority Infrastructure (PKI), including a Certificate Authority (CA), server configured on your network. It is beyond the scope of this document to describe the configuration of the RADIUS server, PKI, and CA server. Consult the documentation for those products.

Some good starting points available on the Web for the Microsoft Windows PKI software are: “How to Install/Uninstall a Public Key Certificate Authority for Windows 2000” at http://sup-port.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;231881 and “How to Configure a Certificate Server” at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318710#3

To set up an IEEE 802.1x client using EAP-TLS Certificate security:

1 Add the Gateway 7001 AP to the list of RADIUS server clients. (See “Configuring an external RADIUS server to recognize the Gateway 7001 AP” on page 146.)

2 Configure the Gateway 7001 AP to use your RADIUS server (by providing the RADIUS server IP address as part of the “IEEE 802.1x” security mode settings).

3 Configure wireless clients to use IEEE 802.1x security and “Smart Card or other Certificate” as described in this section.

4 Obtain a certificate for this client as described in “Obtaining a TLS-EAP certificate for a client” on page 151.

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