H3C Technologies H3C WX3000E Series Wireless Switches - Manual (Page 547)

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Configuring portal authentication
Overview
Portal authentication helps control access to the Internet. It 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. However, to access the Internet, a user
must pass portal authentication.
A user can access a known portal website and enter username and password for authentication. This
authentication mode is called active authentication. There is also another authentication mode, forced
authentication, in which the access device forces a user who is trying to access the Internet through HTTP
to log on to a portal website for authentication.
The portal feature provides the flexibility for 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.
A typical portal system comprises these basic components: authentication client, access device, portal
server, authentication/accounting server, and security policy server.
Figure 556 Portal system components
The components of a portal system interact in the following procedure:
1. When an unauthenticated user enters a website address in the browser's address bar to access the
Internet, an HTTP request is created and sent to the access device. The access device then redirects
the HTTP request to the portal server's Web authentication homepage. For extended portal
functions, authentication clients must run the portal client software.
Authentication/accounting
server
Security policy server
Portal server
Authentication client
Access device
Authentication client
Authentication client