Authentication service for facilitating access to services

• US 7,886,343 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2007
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Nichols, Timothy C., Bucher, Timothy, Evans, John S., Sullivan, Timothy
• Primary Examiner(s): CERVETTI, DAVID GARCIA
• Application Number:
  US11/697,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20070240202A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,404 Days
• Field of Search: 726/5, 726/9, 726/11, 726/7, 726/6, 713/153, 713/152
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1453 Methods or systems for payment or settlement of the charges for data transmission involving significant interaction with the data transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32

Abstract

Authenticating a third party client system prior to providing Internet access via an Internet access point. In a distributed computing system including an Internet access point, an authentication service, and a third party client system, an authentication service receives an authorization request from a third party client system. The authorization request is initiated in response to a single action being performed by a user of the third party client system. The user is not required to manually submit any identification information. The authorization request includes a unique client identifier for identifying the third party client system. The method also includes verifying that the third party client system associated with the unique client identifier is authorized to access the Internet via the Internet access point. If the third party client system is authorized to access the Internet, Internet access is provided to the third party client system.

Claims

1. In a distributed computing system including one or more Internet access points, an authentication service, and a third party client system, a method of authenticating the third party client system prior to providing Internet access via one of the Internet access points to the third party client system, the method comprising:

receiving, at the authentication service, information regarding at least a user of the third party client system via private Internet access or a first Internet access point;

transmitting to the third part client a single action module, the single action module including mechanisms configured to allow the third party client to implement a single action initiation of Internet access, the single action module being directly provided by the authentication service to the third party client;

transmitting a unique client identifier to the third party client system by the authentication service in response to receiving the information;

storing, at the authentication service, at least part of the information;

receiving, at the authentication service, subsequent to transmitting the unique client identifier to the third party client system, an authorization request from the third party client system via a second Internet access point, the authorization request being initiated in response to a single action being performed by a user of the third party client system without the manual submission of any identification information by the user, the authorization request including the unique client identifier for identifying the third party client system;

verifying that the third party client system associated with the unique client identifier is authorized to access the Internet via one of the Internet access points; and

providing Internet access to the third party client system associated with unique client identifier via one of the Internet access points.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the single action is a mouse click.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising billing the user of the third party client system a predefined amount for the Internet access.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at the authentication service account information from the user of the third party client system during a one time initiation session;

assigning the unique client identifier to the third party client system for identifying the third party client system;

associating the unique client identifier with the account information; and

storing the unique client identifier at the authentication service and at the third party client system.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the account information includes billing information for the user of the third party client system.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the unique client identifier includes a username.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the unique client identifier includes an Internet Protocol address of the third party client system.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the Internet access point is a wireless Internet access point.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein receiving an authorization request more specifically comprises:

receiving the authorization request at the Internet access point; and

redirecting the authorization request to the authentication service.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a single action user interface on the display of the third party client system for requesting the single action from the user.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at the authentication service authorization requests from multiple third party client systems via two or more independent internet access points; and

managing a verification process for each internet access point.

12. In a distributed computing system including an Internet access point, an authentication service, and a third party client system, a method of requesting authorization to access the Internet via the Internet access point, the method comprising:

receiving a unique client identifier at the third party client system from the authentication service, the unique client identifier provided by the authentication service in response to receiving information regarding at least a user of the third party client system;

receiving at the third party client system from the authentication system, subsequent to receiving the unique client identifier, a single action module, the single action module including mechanisms configured to allow the third party client to implement a single action initiation of Internet access the single action module being directly provided by the authentication service to the third party client;

providing, subsequent to receiving the single action module, a single action user interface based on the mechanisms of the single action module on a display of the third party client system for receiving a single action from the user to initiate an authorization request for accessing the Internet via the Internet access point, wherein the single action user interface does not request the manual submission of any identification information from the user;

receiving at the third party client system the single action from the user;

communicating an authorization request to the authentication service via the Internet access point, the authorization request including the unique client identifier for identifying the user of the third party client system; and

receiving at the third party client system authorization to access the Internet via the Internet access point.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, the method further comprising sending account information to the authentication service during a one-time initiation session.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the account information includes billing information for the user.

15. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the single action is a mouse click.

16. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the unique client identifier includes a username.

17. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the unique client identifier includes an Internet Protocol address of the third party client system.

18. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the Internet access point is a wireless Internet access point.

19. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising receiving data from the authentication service for generating the single action user interface on the display of the third party client system for requesting the single action from the user.

20. In a distributed computing system including an Internet access point, an authentication service, and a third party client system, a method of authenticating the third party client system prior to providing Internet access via the Internet access point to the third party client system, the method comprising:

receiving at the authentication service account information from a user of the third party client system during a one time initiation session;

assigning a unique client identifier to the third party client system for identifying the third party client system in response to receiving the account information, and associating the unique client identifier with the account information;

transmitting the unique client identifier to the third party client system by the authentication service;

storing the unique client identifier at the authentication service and at the third party client system;

transmitting to the third part client a single action module, the single action module including mechanisms configured to allow the third party client to implement a single action initiation of Internet access, the single action module being directly provided by the authentication service to the third party client;

receiving at the authentication service, subsequent to transmitting the unique client identifier to the third party client system, an authorization request from the third party client system via one of the Internet access points, the authorization request being initiated in response to a single action being performed by a user of the third party client system without the manual submission of any identification information by the user, the authorization request including the unique client identifier;

verifying that the third party client system associated with the unique client identifier is authorized to access the Internet via the Internet access point; and

providing Internet access to the third party client system via the Internet access point.