Captive portal – Dell PowerConnect M6220 User Manual

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Configuring System Information

Captive Portal

The Captive Portal (CP) feature allows you to block clients directly connected to the switch from

accessing the network until user verification has been established. You can configure CP verification to

allow access for both guest and authenticated users. Authenticated users must be validated against a

database of authorized Captive Portal users before access is granted. The database can be stored locally

on the switch or on a RADIUS server.
When a port is enabled for Captive Portal, all the traffic coming onto the port from the unauthenticated

clients are dropped except for the ARP, DHCP, DNS and NETBIOS packets. These packets are allowed to

be forwarded by the switch so that the unauthenticated clients can get an IP address and be able to

resolve the hostname or domain names. Data traffic from authenticated clients goes through as

expected. If an unauthenticated client opens a web browser and tries to connect to network, the Captive

Portal redirects all the HTTP/HTTPS traffic from unauthenticated clients to the authenticating server

on the switch. A Captive portal web page is sent back to the unauthenticated client and the client can

authenticate and based upon the authentication the client is given access to the port.

NOTE:

For information about the CLI commands you use to view and configure Captive Portal settings, refer to the

Captive Portal Commands chapter in the CLI Reference Guide:

The Captive Portal folder contains links to the following pages that help you view and configure system

Captive Portal settings:

This manual is related to the following products: