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  • 1.  Aruba Central External Captive Portal with radius authentication

    Posted Feb 09, 2026 04:21 AM

    Hi all, 

    I'm wondering if anyone has set up an External Captive Portal with radius authentication? I've got it set up and my splash page comes up but I've no idea where to POST the form so that Aruba Central will receive it and pass it to our radius server for authorization. Or maybe I'm missing something else. I will post my simple splash page code below. That is the only iteration so far that actually shows the client trying to connect in Aruba Central but nothing ever happens. It just sits there in connecting status. I also do not see any auth attempts on my radius server. 

    The radius server is set up and functioning correctly for other non-captive portal SSID's such as our main SSID which uses WPA3 to connect. 

    My splash page has a valid SSL cert. 

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    <!doctype html>
    <html lang="en">
     <head>
     <meta charset="utf-8">
     <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
     <title>External Captive Portal with Username</title>
     </head>
     <body>
     <form method="POST" action="https://securelogin.arubanetworks.com/cgi-bin/login">
     <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="authenticate" />
     User Name: <br/> <input type="text" name="user" id="user"/>
     <br/>
     Password: <br/> <input type="password" name="password" id="password"/>
     <br/>
     <input type="submit" value="Login"/>
     </form>
     </body>
    </html>



    -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Aruba Central External Captive Portal with radius authentication

    Posted Feb 10, 2026 10:43 PM

    there are lots of deployments/example using Aruba Central managed APs with ClearPass as external captive portal and RADIUS server.

    Is that what you are looking for?



    ------------------------------
    If my post was useful accept solution and/or give kudos.
    Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of HPE or Aruba.
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  • 3.  RE: Aruba Central External Captive Portal with radius authentication

    Posted Feb 11, 2026 07:46 AM

    We don't have ClearPass. Is that necessary to make this work? 

    What I'm looking for is a login/splash page that a user provides Active Directory credentials to authenticate via our radius servers. The 2 major pieces we want are:

    1. Control users access via AD credentials/groups. This would be for guests on a guest ssid and for our techs on a staging ssid.
    2. Never save credentials to a users device. When a tech uses the staging ssid, we do not want a wireless profile left on the device that has their credentials in it. 

    We don't have ClearPass but I will do some research on it to see if it can lead me in the right direction. 

    -------------------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Aruba Central External Captive Portal with radius authentication

    Posted Feb 11, 2026 10:40 AM

    ClearPass will definitely provide the solution you are asking for, otherwise you are likely to need some other product that provides captive portal functionality or you're going to end up with a custom solution that requires in-house coding.



    ------------------------------
    Carson Hulcher, ACEX#110
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Aruba Central External Captive Portal with radius authentication

    Posted Feb 11, 2026 11:06 AM

    I guess I'm not understanding. The captive portal functionality appears to be built into Aruba Central. Why would I need another product? I'm completely fine with in-house coding. I feel like I'm just missing a step somewhere.

    My external splash page appears, I type my test user credentials, those credentials post to Aruba Central (this is the part I'm unsure of), I can see my client trying to connect in Aruba Central, but nothing happens. 

    The primary server is set to my radius server but I never see any requests/traffic hit the server and be allowed or denied for the test users credentials. 

    Maybe I'm dumb, what am I missing here?

    -------------------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Aruba Central External Captive Portal with radius authentication

    Posted Feb 11, 2026 11:13 AM

    What are you using to achieve your external splash page?  There are a bunch of different ways to accomplish the captive portal, knowing which one you're attempting would be helpful.  If you are trying to create your own custom captive portal page on your own web server, that's probably not going to go very far as you've moved beyond the help of a forum like this.

    Central allows for the use of Cloud Guest which is a completely managed captive portal solution that you administer from Central.  If you are attempting a separate external captive portal, then you have to provide some sort of authentication mechanism back to the AP to allow the session.  This usually means posting the credentials from the captive portal back to the AP and then the AP will submit those credentials via RADIUS for authentication.



    ------------------------------
    Carson Hulcher, ACEX#110
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Aruba Central External Captive Portal with radius authentication

    Posted Feb 11, 2026 11:29 AM

    Please check this New central document https://arubanetworking.hpe.com/techdocs/NAC/central-nac/central-nac-visitor/ 

    Classic Central doc https://arubanetworking.hpe.com/techdocs/central/latest/content/nms/policy/cfg-ca-branch-gws-cg.htm#microcontent1 



    ------------------------------
    Pavan Arshewar
    Technical Lead Aruba ERT


    If my post addresses your query, give kudos!
    Note: Please note that the views, opinions, and statements expressed are solely my own and are provided in my personal capacity. They do not represent, reflect, or bind the Aruba HPE Networking in any manner.
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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