The captive portal mechanism used by many WiFi providers: a user wants to access the Internet and opens a browser. The NAS detects that the user is not currently authorized to have access to the Internet, so the NAS prompts the user for their username and password. The user supplies them and sends them back to the NAS. The NAS then uses the RADIUS protocol to connect to an AAA server and passes off the username and password. The RADIUS server searches through its resources and finds that the credentials are valid and notifies the NAS that it should grant the access. The NAS then grants the user access to the Internet.