FreeRADIUS does the job well and the price is right!
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use FreeRADIUS to authenticate our users to wifi. It eliminates the issue of a shared password and the security flaws that follow that idea as employees come and go. Also by utilizing this system we can allocate the appropriate network resources based on the account that logs in. Since radius servers are widely accepted we are able to use this user database with a variety of services.
Pros
- FreeRADIUS is easy to configure
- It is fast a lightweight footprint on the server
- FreeRADIUS works universally with other systems that support radius authentication
Cons
- FreeRADIUS requires a 3rd party interface to make it easier to access (we use Daloradius) - it would nice if it was built in.
- Installation and configuration are pretty easy and straightforward but does require connecting to a database which can be cumbersome.
Most Important Features
- Lightweight
- Fast
- Easy to Use
- Free!
Return on Investment
- We previously used Microsoft Network Policy Server for our RADIUS authentication which works ok but was pretty clunky and requires Windows Server. Switching to FreeRADIUS brought our cost down to zero.
- Because FreeRADIUS works natively in Linux it's easy to setup and works with all distros.
- FreeRADIUS allows us to have user authentication for wifi which is much more secure than a simple shared password solution.
Other Software Used
WatchGuard Network Security, Splashtop Enterprise, IDrive, Salesforce CMS