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Showing posts from January, 2011

Portal Authentication

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Portal  Authentication Overview Portal authentication, as its name implies, helps control access to the Internet. Portal authentication is also called web authentication and a website implementing portal authentication is called a portal website. With portal authentication, an access device forces all users to log into the portal website at first. A user can access the free services provided on the portal website without authentication; but to access the Internet, the user must pass portal authentication on the portal website. A user can access a known portal website and enter the username and password for authentication. This authentication mode is called active authentication. There is still another authentication mode, namely forced authentication, in which the access device forces a user trying to access the Internet through HTTP to log in to a portal website for authentication. The portal feature provides the flexibility for Internet service providers (ISPs) to manage services. A