Patent ID: 8627410

Claim:
A system comprising: a remote authentication dial in user service (RADIUS) server configured to: receive an authentication request from a network access server, the authentication request including a user identifier and a device identifier of the network access server, access a user profile of a set of user profiles stored within a user account based on the received user identifier and device identifier of the network access server to retrieve, from the user profile, information specific to the network access server including an authentication type indicator stored within the user profile, determine, from the information specific to the network access server and based on the authentication type indicator, an authentication mechanism associated with the network access server to be used to process the authentication request and an authentication format for an authentication response to be provided to the network access server, the authentication format and the authentication response being specific to the type of network access server from which the authentication request is received, and provide the authentication response to the network access server in the determined authentication format, wherein the authentication mechanism is chosen from a plurality of available authentication mechanisms that include a hardware token ring mechanism, an LDAP mechanism, a SecurID mechanism, a secure-shell-based mechanism, a secure socket layer-based mechanism and a password based mechanism.