Distributed authentication. Which one?

[Francisco Reyes]

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005, Aaron Glenn wrote:

> Exactly. The problem I've always had is, what happens when you can
> reach the device, but the device can't reach any KDC (for whatever
> reason)? How can one fall back on another authentication method while
> maintaining consistant login credentials? Food for thought...

I am totally new at distributed authentication, but would think that at 
least the adminstrator(s), would want to have their id(s) in the local 
password database.

> I would say LDAP, but then I've never used NIS.

The general comment I am seeing in archives is that it is not commonly 
used anymore.