Introduction
Network Access Protection (NAP) is a platform to check for all incoming requests to access an internal resource. It allows administrators to establish and develop specific levels of controls to allow network access based on requester identity. The level of access that has been granted to requester and a check against the requester must be in compliance with the organization.
Components of Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP)
Below are the components of a Microsoft NAP solution.
Policy server: used to evaluate the health of the requester. It basically communicates with an endpoint agent called the NAP agent to determine the health of that agent. Based on the evaluation of the health of the NAP agent, it is permitted further access. A Windows Server 2008 can be configured or NAP with Network Policy Server (NPS) role service can be installed and configured.
NAP capable computer: Under this comes all the requesters which have an endpoint agent termed as NAP agent installed or running.
NAP Agent: a service that collects and manages health information for NAP client computers. It is also termed as a health agent. It usually monitors health of components like firewall, virus protection, spyware protection, automatic updating, Security Update protection, etc. The examples of Agents include Windows Security Health Agent (WSHA), System Center Configuration Manager SHA and the Forefront Client Security SHA (FCS SHA).
Compliant computer: Under this comes the entire computer in the network which is in compliance with policies set up in the policy server.
Noncompliant computer: Under this comes the entire computer in the network which is not in compliance with policies set up in the policy server.
Health status: This parameter defines the client’s configuration state like firewall status, antivirus status, automatic updating status, etc. Based on this parameter evaluation result, requester is allowed access to the network.