[1] The MAC address is the link level hardware address, e.g. an ethernet address. Polling from a remote authentication server would not detect the MAC address reliably.

[2] The Management Information Base (MIB) defines the information that can be retrieved from a network device by an appropriate management station.

[3] Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is used widely for management of active components of IP networks.

[4] BOOTP is a predecessor to DHCP. Since it can not use a routable transport protocol, the BOOTP specification includes an optional relay server to reach a remote BOOTP server.

[5] Kerberos is a strong authentication technology developed at MIT and defined in RFC 1510.

[6] Appendix A explains why the timer is set here rather than in the SNMP agent.

[7] The Mandarin Project at Cornell has done a lot of work in this area. See their Web pages on Mandarin Security.

[8] The timer might be set in the SMA instead but that would require the user's computer to know the address of the SMA and be able to talk to it - yet another set of protocols.

[9] The Kerberos Ticket Granting Service (TGS) is the first service requested. It is used to obtain access to all other Kerberized services.