Wireless EAP components verification

Question

Hi all,

I'm currently in a wireless LAN issue which has the following in the event log but seems to be a red herring as it is doing it all the time (every half an hour after the initial connection).

The message is:

<Data Name="RestartReason">Peer Initiated</Data>

I found the description for this in some Microsoft documentation:

OneXRestartReasonPeerInitiated
The EAPHost component (the peer) requested the 802.1x module to restart 802.1X authentication. This results from a EapHostPeerProcessReceivedPacket function call that returns an EapHostPeerResponseAction enumeration value of EapHostPeerResponseStartAuthentication in the pEapOutput parameter.

But when I look at the components of EAP descriptions it's not clear whether this is the client(windows 10 laptop) or this is the wireless AP.

EAPHost authentication has the following three components.

The supplicant, which makes the authentication requests.

The peer (or client) EAP methods, which implement the specific EAP methods and manage the authentication session on the client side.

The authenticator (or server) EAP methods, which implement the server side of the EAP protocol.

Can someone confirm for me whether this is the client or the wireless AP that is doing this. I was thinking the AP but the above has muddied the waters somewhat.

If someone could confirm that would be brilliant.

All help appreciated.

Cheers

Kev

Answer 1

Hi there,

I would suggest you to check your network package and only from that we can converge this on whether this is the client or wireless AP.

The EAP authentication process works like this , the authenticator (the server) sends a Request to authenticate the peer (the client). The peer sends a Response packet in reply to a valid Request. The authenticator sends an additional Request packet, and the peer replies with a Response.

You can try out the steps in this forum to get more info regarding this

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/f6fbae85-90cc-4966-ba45-fe772a37c159/eap-root-cause-string-network-authentication-failed-due-to-a-problem-with-the-user-account-what?forum=winserverNIS

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Answer 2

Hi,

Thanks im aware of how EAP works thanks.

Do you mean network packets not package?

Ta

Answer 3

I think network package is a packet capture?

Its the below i wanted clarifying:

****The peer (or client) EAP methods, which implement the specific EAP methods and manage the authentication session on the client side.****

This suggests this is a software component on the OS rather than anything external?

Thanks

Kev