Call it NAC (Cisco’s Network Admission Control) or, well, NAC (network access control), or even NAP (Microsoft’s Network Access Protection). Any way you refer to it, these schemes for shutting out unwanted users at the LAN switch port level are among the most buzzed about network technologies.

Almost all Ethernet vendors offer some sort of NAC technology — even D-Link, SMC and Linksys on the low end. Advanced network product integration, such as Cisco’s NAC or Nortel’s Secure Network Architecture, allow LAN switches to communicate with back-end security gear to filter dangerous or unsecure users and shut down unwanted network activity — in theory.

At NetworkWorld.

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