authentication

Configuring RIPv2 and EIGRP authentication with key chains can be tricky at first, and the syntax isnt exactly easy to remember.

In part III of this ISDN primer, we learned that PPP has two main methods of authentication that Cisco certification candidates need to know how to configure: PAP and CHAP.

Customer X has a requirement for remote users to use strong authentication when accessing Customer X networks and systems. The use of username and passwords does not constitute strong authentication.

In this example we will authenticate mobile web users for our application using Forms Authentication. Other forms of authentication for mobile web applications are - Windows Authentication - Passport Authentication

We often think about security measures as ways of protecting resources by preventing access to them. The need for authentication arises because, in the real world, keeping people out of protected areas is only half the battle. Authentication is about letting certain people (or processes) in, while keeping everyone else out. In practice, this usually means some people are going to have to be given secrets (passwords) that will form part of the credentials they need to present in order to gain access to protected resources. But since, as the old saying goes, the best way to keep a secret is not to, the distribution and exchange of access-providing secrets inevitably raises the level of risk to a secure system. A major goal of authentication, from a security point of view, is minimizing that risk - especially when users are being authenticated remotely, over publicly-accessible networks. Authentication is the process of poking minimally risky holes in one's security.

Unix and Linux machines have been able to provide Network Neighborhood style file and print services for some time now, but I constantly see confusion and problems due to misunderstanding of how these things work. I'm going to use an example from a real situation involving an XP user and a SCO Visionfs network. The concepts of this apply to Linux, Mac, Samba: it doesn't really matter.