Obtaining information for a wireless connection

• US 8,583,765 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2010
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rachabathuni, Sailesh, Kiraly, Kenneth P., MacGregor, Christopher S. A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet
• Application Number:
  US12/881,487
• Time in Patent Office: 1,155 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/225, 709/227, 709/228, 709/229, 709/250
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

Electronic devices may locate and test wireless networks that are available, and may establish connections with no or minimal user intervention. The electronic device may periodically transmit a datagram to a connection server, providing updated information as to the network address of the electronic device as well as maintaining a pathway through intervening network devices. The connection server may then initiate a connection via this pathway with the information provided in the datagram.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory;

a wireless network interface;

one or more processors coupled to the memory and the wireless network interface;

a plurality of instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to;

locate one or more wireless networks;

generate a set of the located one or more wireless networks;

test the one or more wireless networks in the set by determining if a network plug-in corresponding to one of the located wireless networks in the set is available;

use the network plug-in to connect to the one of the wireless networks corresponding to the network plug-in based at least in part on determining that the network plug-in is available;

based at least in part on determining that no network plug-in is available, perform a secondary test to connect to one of the one or more wireless networks

based at least in part on performing the secondary test, connect to one of the one or more wireless networks; and

transmit to a connection server via the connected wireless network information identifying the system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission to the connection server occurs periodically at pre-determined intervals.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the pre-determined interval is configured such that an inbound connection pathway to the system is maintained through one or more intervening network devices.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the pre-determined interval is retrieved, at least in part, from the connection server.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the pre-determined intervals are adjusted dynamically.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more intervening network devices comprise:

a firewall;

network address translation device;

a proxy server;

or

a router.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the secondary test comprises:

selecting a wireless network from the set;

when an attempt to connect to the selected wireless network fails, categorizing the selected wireless network as unusable and testing a next wireless network from the set;

when the attempt to connect to the selected wireless network succeeds;

when a domain name service check fails, categorizing the selected wireless network as unusable and testing the next wireless network from the set;

when the domain name service check succeeds, attempting to retrieve the reference data from the connection server;

when the reference data is retrieved in an unmodified state, categorizing the selected wireless network as open and connecting and using the selected wireless network;

when the reference data is unretrievable or is retrieved in a modified state, categorizing the selected wireless network as captive and presenting a connection option for the selected wireless network to a user;

when the user declines to connect, testing the next wireless network from the set; and

when the user accepts the connection option, attempting to connect with the selected wireless network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein testing the one or more wireless networks in the set further comprises retrieving reference data over the one or more wireless networks, wherein the reference data comprises a file.

9. The system of claim 1, the plurality of instructions being further executable to:

receive from the connection server or a device in communication with the connection server a request for connection based at least in part upon data in the information identifying the system.

10. The system of claim 1, embodied as an electronic book reader device.

11. A system comprising:

a memory;

a network interface;

one or more processors coupled to the memory and the network interface;

a plurality of instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to;

receive multiple transmissions of information from an electronic device via the network interface at a pre-determined interval configured to maintain a connection pathway with the electronic device through one or more intervening network devices, wherein the pre-determined interval may be dynamically adjusted;

extract a source network address associated with the device from the information; and

store the extracted source network address.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the received information comprises a stateless datagram or a stateful packet.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions are further executable to store at least a portion of the received information.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions are further executable to:

establish a connection via the connection pathway with the electronic device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions are further executable to:

provide to the electronic device via the connection one or more network plug-ins configured to allow the electronic device to connect to one or more wireless networks.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the network plug-ins are executable by a processor of the electronic device to connect the electronic device to a wireless network.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the network plug-ins comprise compiled executable programs, scripts, or virtual machine code.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions are further executable to:

receive a request to initiate communication with the electronic device; and

establish a connection via the connection pathway with the electronic device based at least in part upon the source network address extracted from the received information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the connection utilizes a transmission control protocol.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the connection utilizes a user datagram protocol.

21. One or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors of an electronic device to perform acts comprising:

locating one or more wireless networks;

determining an access status of the one or more located wireless networks, based at least in part on determining whether an executable network plug-in corresponding to one of the located wireless networks is available;

connecting to one of the wireless networks corresponding to the executable network plug-in based at least in part on determining that the executable network plug-in is available; and

transmitting to a connection server and via the connected wireless network data identifying the electronic device, wherein the transmitting comprises periodically sending the data at an interval configured to maintain an inbound connection to the electronic device through one or more intervening network devices between the electronic device and the connection server.

22. The computer-readable storage media of claim 21, the data further comprising a user datagram protocol (UDP) datagram.

23. The computer-readable storage media of claim 21, wherein determining the access status of the one or more located wireless networks includes determining whether the access status is at least one of accessible, open, or captive.

24. The computer-readable storage media of claim 23, wherein the wireless network is open when access to the wireless network is unrestricted.

25. The computer-readable storage media of claim 23, wherein the wireless network is captive when limited connectivity is available and additional interaction is required for access.