User:Zinnex/sandbox

Overview
In a computer network environment, a supplicant refers to the PC or a network device that is being authenticated, or in a more simple terms, a network device that is looking to gain access to resources that are actually secured via 802.1x authentication mechanism. This device could be either a Wireless Access Point, a computer, a VoIP phone or any hardware with 802.1x authentication capabilities.

Access
For a supplicant capable device to gain access to the secured resources on a network,some preconditions need to be observed and a context that will make this feasible. The network to which the supplicant need to interact with must provide a Radius Server also known as Authentication Server, an Authenticator and optionally a DHCP server if automatic IP address assignment is sought after, and in certain configurations, an active directory domain controller. This is particularly true in Microsoft environment especially when using Internet Authentication Service (IAS) or Network Policy Server (NPS) as the software running on the Authentication Server.