Chapter 2: Captive Portal Authentication; Captive Portal Overview - AMIGOPOD PowerConnect W Clearpass 100 Software Integration Manual

Amigopod and ArubaOS Integration Application Note

Chapter 2: Captive Portal Authentication

Captive portals are the simplest form of authentication for users. This section introduces the concepts
behind the authentication and compares and contrasts Amigopod with the ArubaOS portal.

Captive Portal Overview

Captive portal allows a wireless client to authenticate using a web-based portal page. Captive portals
are typically used in wireless hotspots or for hotel in-room Internet access. After a user associates to
the wireless network, their device is assigned an IP address. The user must start a web browser and
pass an authentication check before access to the network is granted. An example page is shown in
Figure 1.
Figure 1 Amigopod captive portal page
Captive portal authentication is the simplest form of authentication to use and it requires no software
installation or configuration on the client. The guest SSID is typically open and does not use any form
of encryption. The portal usually asks for some limited information such as a username and password
and the exchange is encrypted using standard SSL encryption.
However, portal authentication does not provide any form of encryption beyond the authentication
process. To ensure privacy of client data, some form of link-layer encryption (such as WPA-PSK or
WPA2-PSK) or higher-level VPN (such as IPsec or SSL) should be used when sensitive data will be
sent over the wireless network.
Aruba Networks, Inc. Captive Portal Authentication | 6