Abstract: A computer network has a subnetwork of computers including a server, a first authentication server, a firewall, and network interconnect. This subnetwork is connected through encrypted protocol handlers and over a potentially insecure channel to a second authentication server. Some authentication requests, especially for users not authenticated in the first authentication server's database and determined by the first authentication server to be authenticatable by the second authentication server, are passed from the server of the subnetwork through the encrypted protocol handlers and over the potentially insecure channel to the second authentication server.