Abstract: A system and method is described that allows the assignment of roles and/or VLANs to an authenticated client device even when an external remote authentication dial in user service (RADIUS) server is inaccessible. In particular, using RADIUS key-reply attributes stored locally after a previous successful authentication using the external RADIUS server, an internal RADIUS server may perform authentication and pass the stored RADIUS key-reply attributes to an authentication module for assignment of a role and/or VLAN to the client device. Accordingly, roles and/or VLANs may be assigned to enforce access privileges of the client device even when an external RADIUS server is inaccessible.