The process of proving your identity to a network system.

Authentication is providing the proper credentials to the system in order to access the data in the directory. Authentication in the Novell eDirectory full service directory allows for both anonymous and user specific access.

Example:

In this example, a user object in Novell eDirectory attaches to the directory and is provided with anonymous access called [Public]. In order to gain full user access, the user must log in and be authenticated.