Patent ID: 8065712

Claim:
A method of qualifying a client machine to access a network, comprising the computer-implemented steps of: receiving a request for access from the client machine from an access server through which the client machine must first go to access the network, said request including user identification information; determining qualification procedures and standards of adequate protection for the client machine based on the user identification information; sending the determined qualification procedures to the access server; receiving from the access server results of applying the qualification procedures at the client machine; determining a level of allowable network access for the client machine based on the results; and instructing the access server to enforce the determined level of allowable network access; wherein determining the qualification procedures and standards of adequate protection comprises: determining a role for the client machine based on a prioritized set of attributes including two or more of MAC address of the client machine, subnet through which access is requested, IP address of the client machine, and network traffic information; updating, based on at least one outside source, information used to construct a plurality of policy rule sets providing different levels of network access requirements; and determining qualification procedures and standards of adequate protection associated with the determined role and the plurality of policy rule sets; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.