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Wi-Fi Redirect Gateway Patent for Hotspots

Posted by timothy on from the mmmm-submarine dept.

Glenn Fleishman writes "Over at WiFiNetNews.com, we just broke the story that Nomadix was issued a patent covering hotspot gateway page redirection. Nomadix makes hardware and software for the hotspot industry, and this patent would cover redirection used by community networking portals (like NoCat), sponsored free networks (like NewburyOpen.Net), and fee networks (like Wayport, T-Mobile HotSpot, and Cometa). It's unclear what terms Nomadix wants for a license, but this patent seems to take a standard way of doing business and put it under fee -- although Nomadix may have been the first firm to employ this method for proxy URL redirection."

6 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. It just takes a little bogus info over DHCP... by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Informative

    Most schools have a similar setup for incoming students on wired networks... and this company is claiming their patent is not specific to wireless.

    The trick is simple to explain... it's a conditional DHCP server. If the MAC address is recognized, the user is supplied valid DHCP information and is allowed to go about their way to the open Internet. If the MAC address is not on the guest list, then the user is supplied an IP address that's in a firewall-restricted range so they can't get out, and DNS server that will map any domain name to the same place, the internal "Please pay..." server. No matter what the user's homepage is, all requests on port 80 will lead to the "Please pay..." page, and all other requests will get dropped on the floor. The internal DHCP settings are set to renew very frequently, so once the user pays they just have to wait a few seconds for their current DHCP settings to expire, an the next lease comes with the proper info.

    Still, that setup could be complex to be patented...

  2. May be invalid for most purposes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to this article on the NoCatNet mailing list.

  3. This isn't nearly as bad as it sounds... by poptix_work · · Score: 5, Informative

    They applied for a very specific patent:

    The basic claim (which is what
    matters, not the invention descriptions) has seven steps, ALL of which much
    happen for the patent to cover your activities:

    1. A method for redirecting an original destination address access request
    to a redirected destination address, the method comprising the steps of:

    receiving, at a gateway device, all original destination address access
    requests originating from a computer;

    determining, at the gateway device, which of the original destination
    address requests require redirection;

    storing the original destination address if redirection is required;

    modifying, at the gateway device, the original destination address access
    request and communicating the modified request to a redirection server if
    redirection is required;

    responding, at the redirection server, to the modified request with a
    browser redirect message that reassigns the modified request to an
    administrator-specified, redirected destination address;

    intercepting, at the gateway device, the browser redirect message and
    modifying it with the stored original destination address; and

    sending the modified browser redirect message to the computer, which
    automatically redirects the computer to the redirected destination address.

    --
    Just because you disagree doesn't make it offtopic or flamebait.
    1. Re:This isn't nearly as bad as it sounds... by zbaron · · Score: 5, Informative

      What has been described here sounds very similar to the SSG-SESM solution from Cisco Systems. This has been around for a very long time. I have been part of a project to implement an SSG solution for traffic accounting on a University network. We capture and redirect clients that have not logged in to a login page and once they have been authenticated, their browser continues to the originally requested location.

      In other projects this has been implemented as short DHCP leases and a bogus DNS that returns the same address for any hostname asked for. See NetReg2 for more details.

  4. What do you expect? by craw · · Score: 5, Funny

    Patent this, patent that, stupid patents, obvious patents, blah, blah, blah.

    Geez, what do you expect? Do you really think that you are going to find an Einstein in the patent office?

    No, wait.

  5. Similar product from 1998 by jpslacker · · Score: 5, Informative

    A company I used to work for(CAIS Internet/Ardent Communications) had a gateway system that did this over five years ago for wired networks. Here are some links to old press releases refering to the gatway system, the IPORT. http://www.kiosks.org/newsbits/2000/021500d.htm http://news.com.com/2100-1033-207372.html?legacy=c net Ardent sold the system to Cisco in 2001: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/prod_022001.html A short description of the software can be found here: http://www.isp-planet.com/equipment/iport.html