Cisco NAC Agent

What is Cisco NAC Agent?

Cisco NAC agent (commonly known as Clean Access Agent), is a client side authentication technique implemented by Cisco systems which can also check for required program updates and patch files if necessary.

It is very surprising to see that this process can be hacked easily but is still being implemented in many large institutions for authentication and validation. The worse part is that, it can handle Windows OS effectively but lacks the ability to validate Mac OS or LINUX systems. Though it provides a web based authentication procedure for these OS, it can easily be over ridden to bypass major authentication protocols.

How to Download and Use Cisco NAC Agent

Network Authentication can only be done for Windows Operating Systems.

• First, you need to Download Cisco NAC Agent from the Cisco download point and install it.
• After installation while connecting to the network you need to right click the program “icon” in the task bar and select the “Popup Login Window”. This will help you to overcome some situations where NAC Agent is not popping up automatically.
• As soon as the system starts connecting to the network server, you need to provide the “username”, “password” and select the allocated authority from the drop down box below it.
• Then press “Login” button to connect.

Not all Windows Operating Systems are supported. NAC agent supports Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7 and Windows XP Media Center Edition. Only One Mac version supported by Clean Access Agent, which is Mac OS X.

Cisco NAC Agent Problems

NAC Agent is one of the few Cisco programs which are  full of glitches and errors. Still the reliability of this program to authenticate students and users in university campus and also in some of corporate sectors is quite interesting. The most common errors associated with this program is the client end error. Sometimes it simply wont connect. The basic reason being unable to access all resources or authenticate the MAC or IP address of the system. A simple advice would be to restart your system and try reconnecting again.

Another notable failure is the inability to identify machines with respect to the MAC address resolution. If you have changed your MAC address and the new address is not standard mark up of registered companies, you wont be allowed to log in. The best thing would be to reset your MAC address to compromise with this error. Now the worst part is that if you have an operating system other than the ones mentioned above you will have to pass through web authentication which is done via cisco nac web agent.

Cisco NAC Web Agent

The Cisco Web Agent runs on the same concept but implements its with the help of a web page. The authentication is down by the web program with the help of a temporary executable file.

It is not much persistent as Cisco NAC agent, and can process only singular user session. It does not require the Cisco NAC agent to be pre-installed so as be used. Hence this saves the time to download and install the NAC agent and can authenticate the system with the help of a browser opening the log-in page. The web-page automatically downloads the temporary installer and loads it in the memory. This program scans for proper credentials of the system and logs back the data to the sever from the browser. As soon as the session is disconnected, The operating System erases this executable file from the memory as well.

Download Cisco NAC WebAgent

You cannot download the web agent separately. This has been done to ensure that the user is not able to manipulate or hack the log file to bypass the authentication procedure.