TACACS+: Is that a WLC, or are you just happy to see me?

In an earlier post, we got started with a pretty basic TACACS+ configuration on an Ubuntu server. That config works pretty well for most, if not all, IOS devices.

So, what about Cisco WLAN controllers? They’re definitely not IOS, but they do speak TACACS+ for administrative access, as well as RADIUS.

This one was a little more difficult to get working, but not because of the config on the Ubuntu server. The difficulty was in putting (3) very important configurations together:

1. You must configure authentication and authorization on the WLC for your login to work. Authentication configured without authorization will appear to log your user in, but will send you quickly back to the login prompt.
2. You must configure the order for authentication–with TACACS+ at the top of the list. If you don’t, local accounts will be used first.
3. It doesn’t appear that the service configuration in the TACACS+ user WLC group can exist with the service configuration for an existing group, so nested groups may be required.

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Ubuntu, Linksys WUSB600N v1, Dish DVR: whose @#$% idea was this?

I love Ubuntu and give myself a little “mental hug” each day for making the switch from Windows to Linux. But, sometimes, the stuff I want/need to do in Linux just isn’t as obvious to me as I’d like; so, I beat my head against a wall trying to figure it out, until my wife gives me that “walk away from it for awhile so you can maintain the little bit of sanity you have left” look. This particular situation is one of those.

What I wanted to do: I have a Dish Network DVR in my living room that has an ethernet card in it, but I don’t have any ethernet wiring where it is. What I do have is an Ubuntu XBMC HTPC with an on-board ethernet card and a Linksys WUSB600N v1 (the version number is important here, I think), connected to a Linksys WAP610N AP (configured for 5GHz 802.11N only), so it stands to reason that I should be able to share the HTPC’s internet connection with the Dish DVR, right?

Ok, so it wasn’t. Twice. Once for Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) and once for 10.04 (Lucid).

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