TACACS+ and RADIUS: When Used?

A lot of the materials I've been using to train for the exam really gloss over TACACS+ and RADIUS. So what I'm wondering is, when exactly do these protocols come into play? Is it like when I'm dialing into my ISP through my modem or what? Can I sniff this traffic easily with Wireshark?

-Matt

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Comments

dynamik

Could be. You can think of them as an authentication proxy. I recently had an ASG120 that I was setting up to provide VPN access to a Server 2003 domain. I installed IAS (Microsoft's implementation of RADIUS), and configured the ASG to use RADIUS authentication and pointed it at the IAS server. You can also use it with wireless, dial-up modems, etc.

msbachman

dynamik wrote: »

Could be. You can think of them as an authentication proxy. I recently had an ASG120 that I was setting up to provide VPN access to a Server 2003 domain. I installed IAS (Microsoft's implementation of RADIUS), and configured the ASG to use RADIUS authentication and pointed it at the IAS server. You can also use it with wireless, dial-up modems, etc.

Alright, thanks for the input, dynamik. But let me phrase this another way: when is RADIUS/TACACS+ used most frequently?

dynamik

That would totally depend on the organization's needs. An ISP might use it for dial-up users while another corporation would use it for wireless or VPN.

Check this out if you haven't already: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RADIUS