The RADIUS BYOD feature in Smoothwall currently only authenticates against Active Directory. While a connection can be made to a 802.1x BYOD setup from a Chromebook, active directory credentials have to be used.
Synchronizing usernames and passwords
Google offer G Suite tools to synchronize usernames and/or passwords with an Active Directory. If usernames already follow the same conventions in both directories, only password sync needs to be done. With this in place, a user based WiFi profile can be created to connect users to an 802.1x WiFi automatically.
The benefit of this is that user authentication on Chromebooks can be done without relying on the capture portal page.
WiFi profile settings
To create the WiFi profile in the G Suite admin console, use these following settings. The variables used in Username and Password field will fill in these values automatically for the logged in user. ${LOGIN_ID} is just the username part, no domain attached and that should match up with the username in Active Directory and the password as well.
Use a generic WiFi for onboarding the devices and to allow the initial login, then enforce the 802.1x SSID once the user is logged in.
The Certificate Authority from the "Services - Authentication - BYOD" page can be uploaded to the clients and used in the "Server Certificate Authority" field but if there are multiple Smoothwall systems and the Chromebook is expected to be connecting to more than just a single location, leave it at the "Do not check" setting. This will allow the connection to stay the same across multiple locations with separate Smoothwall installations, as long as the SSID, username and password stays the same.
For configuring the WiFi controller to offer an 802.1x enabled SSID connected to the Smoothwall, contact Smoothwall Support.
Benefits and drawbacks
Using an 802.1x authenticated WiFi is a easy way of getting Chromebooks, school and BYOD devices logged on to the WiFi and being able to track user activity on those devices with no hassle for the user. We always recommend that you use the BYOD 802.1x for WiFi SSIDs to easily authenticate users.
This approach for Chromebooks cannot be used if external filtering is needed as well as internal. Cloud Filter has to be used for those cases.