In a preferred embodiment, the invention comprises an authentication engine, an authentication host, a plurality of providers coupled to the host which implement selected authentication schemes, and {HEAD ~ a machine independent communication mechanism} which enables the various components to communicate with each other irregardless of {TAIL ~ the machine} each component resides on 
In a preferred embodiment , the invention comprises an authentication engine , an authentication host , a plurality of providers coupled to the host which implement selected authentication schemes , and { HEAD ~ a machine independent communication mechanism } which enables the various components to communicate with each other irregardless of { TAIL ~ the machine } each component resides on
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