Chapter 1. An Overview of RADIUS

In an ideal world, we wouldn't have to use authentication of any type to gain access to anything. But as long as free enterprise exists and access to private resources is sold, authentication will exist.

You may have experienced authentication as recently as an hour ago, when you used a dial-up Internet account to log on and surf the Web for the latest headlines. You may have checked your corporate email on your PalmPilot to see if your biggest client had returned your message about the newest proposal. And this weekend, when you use a VPN to connect to your office network so you can revise that presentation that's due early Monday morning, you'll have to authenticate yourself.