One of our clients had customer-visible issues in their 802.1X deployment. We tracked the problem down to firmware issues and worked with multiple vendors to fix the issues and more. This meant that our client was satisfied that their setup met all requirements.

Project description

After weeks of attempting 802.1X setup, our customer was no further ahead than when they had started. They called on our 802.1X setup service to help.

How we solved it

Our approach

We tracked one problem down to firmware issues on the networking equipment. We worked with the vendor to fix those issues, along with subsequent issues that resulted from the firmware changes. By capitalizing on experience gained from additional problems we’d seen with our other customers, we customized a solution for this client.

We worked with a second equipment vendor and tracked down undocumented features of their product that would simplify the network configuration. Finally, we fixed intermittent failures that were caused by interaction effects between our product and newer versions of Active Directory.

The results

The end result was that the customer’s deployment met all of their requirements. A complex set of features was deployed across a wide range of networking equipment, which was supplied by a number of different vendors.

For the administrator, the benefits of authenticating each user on the network were enormous. To a normal user of the network, however, the additional network security was unobtrusive. Users could continue to access the network in their traditional manner.