1. INTRODUCTION The FreeRADIUS Server Project is a high performance and highly configurable RADIUS server that is available under the terms of the GNU GPLv2. Using RADIUS allows authentication and authorization for a network to be centralized, and minimizes the number of changes that have to be done when adding ordeleting new users. FreeRADIUS can authenticate users on systems such as 802.1x (WiFi), dialup, PPPoE, VPN's, VoIP, and many others. It supports back-end databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft Active Directory, OpenLDAP, and many more. It is used daily to authenticate the Internet access for hundreds of millions of people, in sites ranging from 10 users, to 10 million and more users. Version 2.0 of the server is similar in many respects to previous versions. It also contains many new features, such as "virtual server" support (raddb/sites-available/README), and a simple policy language ("man unlang"). Administrators upgrading from a previous version should install this version in a different location from their existing systems. They should then migrate their current configuration to the new server, being careful to take advantage of the new features which can greatly simply the servers configuration. Please see the web page http://www.freeradius.org for more information. The wiki (http://wiki.freeradius.org) also contains a large amount of documentation that addresses common scenarios. 2. INSTALLATION To install the server, please see the INSTALL file in this directory. 3. DEBUGGING THE SERVER Run the server in debugging mode, (radiusd -X) and READ the output. We cannot emphasize this point strongly enough. The vast majority of problems can be solved by carefully reading the debugging output, which includes WARNINGs about common issues, and suggestions for how they may be fixed. Read the FAQ. Many questions are answered there. See the Wiki http://wiki.freeradius.org Read the configuration files. Many parts of the server have NO documentation, other than comments in the configuration file. Search the mailing lists. There is a Google link on the bottom of the page: http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html Type some key words into the search box, and you should find discussions about common problems and solution. 4. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION See 'doc/README' for more information about FreeRADIUS. There is an O'Reilly book available, which we recommend for people new to RADIUS. It is almost 5 years old, however, and is not much more than a basic introduction to the subject. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596003226/freeradiusorg-20/ For other RADIUS information, the Livington internet site had a lot of information on radius online. Unfortunately Livingston, and the site, don't exist anymore but there is a copy of the site still at: http://portmasters.com/www.livingston.com/ Especially worth a read is the "RADIUS for Unix administrators guide" HTML: http://portmasters.com/tech/docs/radius/1185title.html PDF: http://portmasters.com/tech/docs/pdf/radius.pdf 5. PROBLEMS AND CONCERNS We understand that the server may be difficult to configure, install, or administer. It is, after all, a complex system with many different configuration possibilities. The most common problem is that people change large amounts of the configuration without understanding what they're doing, and without testing their changes. The preferred method of operation is the following: 1) Start off with the default configuration files. 2) Save a copy of the default configuration: It WORKS everywhere. 3) Verify that the server starts. (You ARE using debugging mode, right?) 4) Send it test packets using "radclient", or a NAS or AP. 5) Verify that the server does what you expect. a) If it does not work, change the configuration, and go to step (3) If you're stuck, revert to using the "last working" configuration. b) If it works, proceed to step (6). 6) Save a copy of the working configuration, along with a note of what you changed, and why. 7) Make a SMALL change to the configuration. 8) Repeat from step (3). This method will ensure that you have a working configuration that is customized to your site as quickly as possible. While it may seem frustrating to proceed via a series of small steps, the alternative is worse. 6. FEEDBACK If you have any comments, bug reports, problems, or concerns, please send them to the 'freeradius-users' list (see the URL above). We will do our best to answer your questions, to fix the problems, and to generally improve the server in any way we can. What you should NOT do is complain that the developers aren't answering your questions quickly enough, or fixing the problems quickly enough, or that they're being mean for telling you to do some work yourself. FreeRADIUS is the cumulative effort of many years of work by many people, and you've gotten it for free. No one gets paid to work on FreeRADIUS, and no one is getting paid to answer your questions. This is free software, and the only way it gets better is if you contribute work back to the project. We will note that the people who complain the loudest about the developers being mean usually can't program, can't write documentation, won't pay others to do that work, demand that their every desire be satisifed immediately by the developers for free, and worst of all, don't understand why their attitude is unproductive. They seem to believe that because they've received something (the server) for free, that they have every right to demand more free support and development from the list. That's simply not true. So please submit bug reports, suggestions, or patches. That feedback gives the developers a guide as to where they should focus their work. If you like the server, feel free to mail the list and say so.