title: Why does LDAP requires a two step "login" (connect and then bind)
body: <p>There's this thing I don't understand concerning LDAP (conceptually speaking, and - at least so I think - not tied to a particular implementation).</p>
  
  <p>I noticed that a typical LDAP client library(for example apache DS) does a connect() first (for which some servers might require username/password), and then executes a bind() operation (which also requires username and password).</p>
  
  <p>Questions: </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>What is the point of this two step operation in LDAP?  </li>
  <li>Does it add extra security?</li>
  <li>Why not just a single step ?</li>
  <li>What is the conceptual signification of these two steps ?</li>
  </ul>