IEEE 802.1X is an IEEE standard for port-based network access control, part of the IEEE 802 (802.1) group of protocols. It provides authentication to devices attached to a LAN port, establishing a point-to-point connection or preventing access from that port if authentication fails. It is often used for wireless access points, and is based on the EAP, Extensible Authentication Protocol (RFC 2284).
802.1X is increasingly available on modern wired network switches, and can be configured to authenticate hosts which are equipped with supplicant software. This eliminates unauthorized network access at the data link layer.
More recently, many vendors are implementing 802.1X with wireless access points to address the insecurities of WEP (see 802.11i). Usually, the authentication is done by a 3rd party entity, such as a RADIUS server. This provides for client-only authentication, or more appropiate, strong mutual authentication.
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