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Monday, February 21, 2011

How To Use McAfee Network Access Control

McAfee Network Access Control (NAC) is an appliance manufactured by McAfee, a large America-based computer security company. McAfee NAC appliance works in such a way that it manages guest and contractor access, thereby protecting your network from unwanted access or other major problems like crashing. Since a problem with a single computer can infect the other computers within the network, it is important to have some sort of protection from these unwanted infected systems from occurring.

This article will teach you how to use McAfee Network Access Control appliance to protect the network of your company or business from access threats and infections in the system.

* Determine the type of Network Access control you will need. There are various models of the NAC appliance and you should know which one fits your needs the most. As a rule of thumb, you should check the number of computers connected to the network, the location of the server or the central location, and the like. All these will help you in deciding what type of network access control appliance is suited for your network.
* Know the minimum requirements of the NAC appliance. Usually, there should be at least 500MB of disk space, Intel Pentium or higher processor, McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or higher. If your network of computers do not have these minimum requirements, then you should upgrade them depending on the specification that does not meet the standard.
* Install the NAC appliance on your network. The appliance should come with an installation guide and software. Follow the guide thoroughly.
* Decide the devices and users that will have an access to your network. You can prevent unwanted users by making a password protection for the users. You can also monitor the usage of the computers accessing the network.
* Use it alongside ePolicy Orchestrator. The McAfee NAC is integrated with the ePolicy Orchestrator, which is considered the most advanced security management software in the market. It reports the results of the security policies to the NAC, which then enforces access control policies to the upcoming guests and contractors. ePolicy can also manage your compliance auditing from a single console and it can deliver end-to-end visibility, an open, extensive architecture and proven efficiencies in reducing security management-related hardware costs.
* You can also use McAfee Remediation Manager. While it is not required, the use of McAfee Remediation Manager can help your network automatically remediate non-compliant systems. However, it has higher setup requirements, which include McAfee NAC 2.0 and higher, McAfee Remediation Manager 4.2 or higher, an ePolicy Orchestrator agent, and a MacAfee NAC scanner.
* Know that computers that run on Mac and Unix can possibly cause a threat to your network. Minimize the threat by setting up an access restriction.


Now that you know how to use your McAfee Network Access Control (NAC) appliance, taking care and protecting your network of computers can be less tiring. Following this guide, it is anticipated that you were able to set up your NAC with ease and comfort.

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