Looking for software tools to test your RADIUS server? Then Bridgewater Systems has an offer you won't be able to refuse! Its RADCheck test suite is now available for the price of the bandwidth necessary to download it.

by ISP-Planet Staff [February 3, 2003]

Bridgewater Systems, an Ontario-based vendor specializing in IP network, service, and access control solutions for telecom service providers, announced that it is making RADCheck—its testing/validation tool for authentication, authorization, and accounting servers—freely available to service providers.

You can view a demo of the suite, and/or register to download a copy at Bridgewater's website.

RADCheck simulates RADIUS clients (such as network access servers), letting service providers "synthesize" service requests that specify their choice of RADIUS attributes—including vendor-specific ones.

RADCheck can be used for load stress-testing and performance measurement (tracking parameters such as response time and timeouts). In addition to performance, "the suite can validate a number of other AAA functions," said Parham Momtahan, Bridgewater's vice president of R & D. For example, the ability of the system to return security parameters (such as VPN keys) during the authorization process.

An important use of RADCheck, Momtahan said, is for validating configurations in new RADIUS servers before bringing them online—as well as testing RADIUS server and policy changes before implementing them.

The tool can track proxy RADIUS performance to maintain service levels or, for trouble-shooting—for example, to determine whether authentication problems reside in ones own network, or that of a wholesale supplier. Yet another test feature allows synthesizing RADIUS accounting requests to validate the correct operation of downstream systems, such as billing.

"RADCheck provides service providers with an easy, no-cost and no-risk means to determine whether they are getting the most out of RADIUS," concluded Momtahan.

System Requirements
System requirements include PERL 5, Sun Solaris (2.5, 2.5.1, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8 or 2.9), Microsoft Internet Explorer (5.5 and higher) or Netscape Navigator (4.7 and higher). In addition, JavaScript must be enabled in Web browsers.

—End