Access Control Concepts

Network Access Control Technologies

Examples include:

A VPN—Remote users access the private network through the Internet. Each remote user sets up a secure tunnel with the network’s VPN gateway device. Checking the integrity of the remote endpoints is particularly important, because they are otherwise beyond your control.

A WAN—A WAN is a network that connects several sites over private connections such as T1 or E1 cable or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) lines: for example, branch offices that connect to a company headquarters. For whatever reason, you might want to test the integrity of endpoints at a remote office before they connect to the segment of the WAN under your control.

A wireless network—A device such as the ProCurve Wireless Edge Services Module controls many RPs and may provide thousands of wire- less users with their access point to the network. Especially when the wireless users connect with their own equipment, the network should test their integrity.

The Wireless Edge Services Module and ProCurve APs support 802.1X authentication, and, for a wireless network that already uses 802.1X to authenticate users, you should choose the 802.1X quarantine option.

However, some networks use an alternative such as WPA-PSK. In this case, inline quarantining provides a higher security option than DHCP.

Note that the NAC 800 is acting as a bridge so all traffic from the module or APs must be forwarded into the rest of the network in the same VLAN. If you require multiple VLANs and cannot use 802.1X, you should use the DHCP method rather than the inline method.

N o t e

With the inline deployment method, the network access controller acts as PEP

 

as well as PDP. It physically stands between endpoints and network resources

 

and enforces its decisions about which resources an endpoint can access.

 

 

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