RADIUS Wi-Fi Login vs. HTTP Proxy Authentication
Decide whether RADIUS evidence is for network admission, proxy authorization, or time-based log correlation.
A successful Wi-Fi login does not automatically answer a web proxy's 407 challenge. RADIUS communicates with a network access server; HTTP proxy authentication is another conversation between the client and proxy.
Decide which of these jobs you need before joining the records:
| Goal | Required evidence or integration |
|---|---|
| Authorize a Squid request by named account or group | An identity mechanism available to that request, such as supported integrated proxy authentication |
| Report which network session was associated with past proxy traffic | Timed session and address-assignment records correlated with the proxy event |
For reporting, preserve the RADIUS session identifier, session times, assigned addresses and relevant DHCP or assignment history. A Squid access record describes an HTTP event; RADIUS accounting describes a network session.
Suppose one laptop releases an address and another receives it. Joining only on the address assigns the second device's traffic to the first. NAT, shared workstations, tunnels and simultaneously valid addresses add further ambiguity.
Describe a correlation as traffic associated with a network session under stated mapping rules. It can be useful without being an authenticated proxy identity attached to the transaction. Even matching usernames in the two systems do not supply the missing request-level integration.