Portal Configuration; Portal Overview; Introduction To Portal; Extended Portal Functions - HP 5120 EI Switch Series Configuration Manual

Portal configuration

Portal overview

Introduction to portal

Portal authentication helps control access to the Internet. Portal authentication is also called ―web
authentication‖. A website implementing portal authentication is called a portal website.
With portal authentication, an access device redirects all users to the portal authentication page. All users
can access the free services provided on the portal website; but to access the Internet, a user must pass
portal authentication.
A user can access a known portal website and enter a username and password for authentication. This
authentication mode is called active authentication. There is another authentication mode, forced
authentication, in which the access device forces a user who is trying to access the Internet through
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to log on to a portal website for authentication.
The portal feature provides the flexibility for Internet service providers (ISPs) to manage services. A portal
website can, for example, present advertisements and deliver community and personalized services. In
this way, broadband network providers, equipment vendors, and content service providers form an
industrial ecological system.

Extended portal functions

By forcing users to implement patching and anti-virus policies, extended portal functions help users to
defend against viruses. The main extended functions are described as follows:
Security check: Works after identity authentication succeeds to check whether the required anti-virus

software, virus definition file, and operating system (OS) patches are installed, and whether there is
any unauthorized software installed on the user host.
 Resource access restriction: A user passing identity authentication can access only network resources
in the quarantined area, such as the anti-virus server and patch server. Only users passing both
identity authentication and security check can access restricted network resources.

Portal system components

As shown in
access device, portal server, authentication/accounting server, and security policy server.
Figure 40, a typical portal system consists of five basic components: authentication client,
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