A method is disclosed for authenticating multiple network elements that access a network through a single network switch port. Certain authentication protocols, such as EAPoE, leave a port of a network switch indefinitely opened when one particular host is authenticated and authorized to transmit network frames through the port. In one embodiment of the invention, a network frame from a second host that is received by the open port is not automatically transmitted to the network. Instead, techniques are employed locally by the network switch to grant or deny transmission of the network frame received from the second host. An authentication server is contacted only when the network switch cannot locally employ techniques to authorize the transmission of the network frame received from the second host.