A system has a local area network, and software to automatically evaluate a network layer address, a lower layer address, a network port identifier, and/or a domain name of an equipment interface that is to be connected to the network. The software is to determine whether one of these matches an expected value for the network. The software is to provide a credential for each equipment interface that is authorized to connect to the network and that has been authenticated by the software. The credential contains a lower layer address, a network layer address, a domain name, and a network port identifier. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.