PortGuard is a Network Access Control (NAC) appliance built on 802.1X / RADIUS. It authenticates every device that connects to your network — through switches or Wi-Fi access points — before granting access, and places it in the right VLAN based on who or what it is. Think of it as an on-premises equivalent of Microsoft NPS + PKI, extended with device profiling, a guest captive portal, real-time SOC/NOC monitoring and NIS2 compliance reporting — all in a single appliance.
| Concept | What it means |
|---|---|
| 802.1X | Port-based access control: the switch/AP blocks traffic until the RADIUS server (PortGuard) approves the device. |
| PEAP-MSCHAPv2 | Username + password authentication inside a TLS tunnel. Easiest to roll out. |
| EAP-TLS | Certificate-based authentication — no passwords on the wire. The most secure option; PortGuard includes the PKI to issue the certificates. |
| TTLS-PAP | Tunneled password authentication for clients that do not support PEAP. |
| MAB | MAC Authentication Bypass — for devices without an 802.1X supplicant (printers, cameras, IoT), identified by MAC address and profiled automatically. |
| Dynamic VLAN | PortGuard returns standard RADIUS attributes (Tunnel-Private-Group-Id) so the switch puts the port in the VLAN decided by policy. |
Users can come from any mix of: local RADIUS users defined on the appliance, Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), LDAP / Active Directory, and SAML 2.0. See Identity.
Open the appliance IP address in a browser over HTTPS and sign in with an administrative account. Sessions expire on inactivity according to Admin Session Security (default: 15 minutes idle, 8 hours absolute) — see Administration.
| Role | Permissions |
|---|---|
| Read Only | Views everything, changes nothing. |
| Full Access | Configures all operational features. |
| Super Admin | Full Access plus admin-account management and reserved functions. |
The menu entries you see depend on the features enabled by your license. License status, limits and enabled features are shown under License / Legal. The trial ISO is fully functional for 30 days. See Administration.
Tip: for installation from ISO and first login, follow the Quick Start Guide — this guide picks up where it ends.