What version? Version 1.X or 2.X? > Since we have now added Ascend to our growing diversity of equipment, > we are seeing multiple accounting records (which is causing many problems). > Reading through the manuals (yet again), I find an obscure reference to > the ascend buffering (and obviously re-sending repeatedly) the records until > they are acknowledged. This is true for _all_ NAS vendors. It is a rquirement for the proper operation of RADIUS. RADIUS is based on UDP. UDP is unreliable. The RADIUS standards require the NAS to resend requests until a response is received or the NAS gives up. Since accounting is considered critical data, a NAS will typically never give up when sending Accounting-Requests (unless configured to do so - check out the "Acct Max Retry" parameter). > According to the Ascend manual, they are never acked by > a "livingston" radius. This is true of the Livingston 1.X RADIUS servers because they did not properly calculate and include the authenticator in accounting messages. This meant that the MAX never received a valid Accounting-Response. > Does anyone have a way around this? The idea of re-doing almost 2 years > worth of scripts to accommodate the Ascends does *not* endear them to me. This is not just a matter of changing your scripts. You need to fix your RADIUS server. You can do this by (a) modifying the source code of your RADIUS server or (b) upgrading to a more recent server that does the right thing [this would be the best idea]. Just about any current RADIUS server, including Livingston 2.X should work. While there are things that Ascend does with RADIUS [using attribute numbers that were reserved for the standard] that are obnoxious, this is one place where Ascend does the _right_ thing. Ascend is just following the current RFC (RFC2139) about checking the authenticator that is included with Accounting-Responses. This is a _good_ thing, not a bad one. The problem is not the MAX, it is the RADIUS server. ++ Ascend Users Mailing List ++ To unsubscribe: send unsubscribe to ascend-users-request@bungi.com To get FAQ'd: <<A HREF="http://www.nealis.net/ascend/faq">http://www.nealis.net/ascend/faq</A>> </PRE> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <STRONG>Follow-Ups</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A HREF="msg09742.html">Re: (ASCEND) Radius</A></STRONG></LI> <UL> <LI><EM>From</EM>: Edward Henigin <ed@texas.net></LI> </UL> </UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <HR> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg09691.html">(ASCEND) Problems with Ascend Access Control</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg09693.html">(ASCEND) numbered interfaces</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg09684.html">(ASCEND) Radius</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg09742.html">Re: (ASCEND) Radius</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="mail14.html#09690"><STRONG>Main</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thrd30.html#09690"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> </BODY> </HTML>