Hi,
I did eventually find a "sorta" fix. I had jumbo frames enabled, disabling them fixed the problem temporarily. the problem has returned in a different form now. the radius server doesn't even see the auth requests now, and the client just won't even try to authenticate. I think this qualifies as a different issue, that I need to pursue separately. should I follow up here, or is it an issue I should contact my switch manufacturer about, or is it a windows problem?
if the server doesnt even see the auth attempts when the client is physically connected to the switch then take a good long look at the switch. use all the commands etc that you can on that switch - the show commands, the debug commands etc to find out what its doing or failing to do. we've had quite a few issues over the years with manufacturers and how they read the specs - life wouldnt be the same without a few interesting firmware upgrades (and cryptic changelogs that come with them). we had a recent one where cisco voip firmware blocked EAP-TLS through the softswitch - kinda annoying. Sounds more like REALLY F'ing annoying to me! But it's probably just me :) <font size="1"> <div style='border:none;border-bottom:double windowtext 2.25pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'> </div> "This email is intended to be reviewed by only the intended recipient and may contain information that is privileged and/or confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, use, dissemination, disclosure or copying of this email and its attachments, if any, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender by return email and delete this email from your system." </font>