An organization maintains a computer network comprising at least a forest A and a forest B, where forest A has a directory A and a querying entity A capable of querying directory A, and forest B has a directory B and a querying entity B capable of querying directory B. Querying entity A receives a request from the user and decides whether to grant the request based at least in part on whether the user is a member of the group. Thus, querying entity A queries directory A to return information on the group, is directed to forest B, contacts querying entity B, requests querying entity B to query directory B whether the user is a member of the group, receives a response, and grants the request from the user based at least in part on whether the user is a member of the group.