New to FreeRADIUS and looking for answers...

[Alan DeKok]

"Scott Holland" <hollstar2047 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> The situation with FreeRADIUS is much the same in some respects its just the 
> documentation that comes with the package doesn't really point you in the 
> right direction in terms of how to go about a complete set up based on XYZ 
> requirements.

  Does Apache come with documentation that says how to configure it
for your site?  Nope.

> As an example, I'd like to set up a FreeRADIUS server. I of course want it 
> to be secure, but I'm not sure if I can get away with not using 
> certificates. I don't know what the pros and cons are?

  You don't have a choice.  If you're doing wireless: certificates.
Not doing wireless: no certificates.

> I'd also like to use a MySQL backend again because of the things I have done 
> with the language and PHP but again, what are the pros and cons to this? 
> Does this (in FreeRADIUS) act as the accounting part of the FreeRADIUS 
> package and what exactly does it count? Does it count hours spent on the 
> service, MB downloaded, what?

  It counts whatever information your NAS sends it.

> A million questions not covered by the website, or docs!

  Your NAS (or AP) documentation should cover much of this, too.  But
those manufacturers have usually punted on the problem, and shipped
the product with nothing for RADIUS docs.

  What was I saying about commercial documentation?  Oh, right... if
you buy a RADIUS server, it will have documentation.  Maybe.  The
documentation might even answer some of your questions, but not
usually.

  The commercial documentation usually assumes you know what RADIUS
is, what it does, and how it works.  It then goes on to describe what
the software does, and how to configure it.  It does NOT describe how
to configure it for your site.

  Funny... that's a lot like the documentation that FreeRADIUS has.

  Alan DeKok.
--
  http://deployingradius.com       - The web site of the book
  http://deployingradius.com/blog/ - The blog