Patent ID: 7730524

Claim:
A network authentication process comprising: accepting at least one authentication credential comprised of a realm, a domain, and a context; determining an authentication protocol employed by the network, wherein determining comprises determining that the protocol is a NDS-based protocol, searching comprises searching for “cn=” as a first identifier and “o=” as a second identifier, and the domain delimiter comprises a period, resulting in a context of the NDS-based protocol; querying a directory server with at least a portion of the at least one authentication credential; receiving reply data from the directory server; parsing the reply data to retrieve at least one omitted authentication credential, wherein parsing comprises: dividing the reply data into tags based on the presence of at least one delimiter between portions of the data; determining what protocol is employed by the directory server; searching for at least one protocol-dependent first identifier in each tag; removing the at least one first identifier when found and storing a remainder of each tag in which the at least first identifier is found; searching for at least one protocol-dependent second identifier in each remaining tag; and removing the at least one second identifier when found and storing a remainder of each tag in which the at least second identifier is found; and concatenating the stored remainders in order found with domain delimiters therebetween; sending the at least one authentication credential and the at least one omitted authentication credential to an authentication server; receiving authentication results from the authentication server; and transmitting the authentication results to an authentication service to authenticate a user.