Need a quick & dirty on RADIUS

[archivalbackup]

I need a quick and dirty on how RADIUS is setup / works. Specifically I am working with steel-belted-radius, which is now owned by Juniper.

Currently we use RADIUS in authenticating our wireless clients, but that is it. I want to get all of our networking devices to use RADIUS as the primary means of authentication as well, but I know nothing about setting up the server side. Can you have multiple groups with various permissions for devices, such as, a group with all of our domain users that applies to wireless, then a separate group of a handful of administrators with specific rights to network devices? Do you need different shared secrets for the different groups, or how are they kept separated.

I tried googeling for some quick answers, but couldn't find any clear answers.

Any tips / overview on RADIUS would be appreciated!

 

[shade_star]

I dont use radius a whole lot so i cant help with wireless but radius is also used to authenticate vpn users. It authenticates the users active directory credentials with what they type into their vpn client.
Personally I tend to purchase a hardware device rather than a full fledge server. Check vendors for a device like this instead of a server, you may save some money and get a simplier setup.