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Off-site user access control

  • US 9,178,861 B2
  • Filed: 10/16/2013
  • Issued: 11/03/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for off-site access control in a communications system, the method comprising:

  • receiving, by a router, a communication request from a user device for communications over the Internet, the user device being communicatively coupled with a site-based communications network, and the router controlling access between the site-based communications network and the Internet;

    determining, by the router, whether the user device is one of a plurality of authorized devices included on an access control list maintained by the router;

    when the user device is one of the authorized devices included on the access control list, automatically routing, by the router, outgoing network traffic originating from the user device to the Internet; and

    when the user device is not one of the authorized devices included on the access control list;

    forwarding, by the router, one or more packets forming the communication request from the user device to an off-site authentication system over the Internet without modifying the one or more packets and without encapsulating the one or more packets inside other packets;

    receiving a captive authentication portal from the off-site authentication system for the user device to become authorized to communicate as requested over the Internet;

    communicating the captive authentication portal from the router to the user device;

    receiving an authentication request from the user device according to the captive authentication portal;

    forwarding the authentication request to the off-site authentication system;

    receiving an authentication response from the off-site authentication system according to the authentication request, the authentication response directing the router to add the user device to the access control list;

    adding the user device to the access control list by the router according to the authentication response; and

    after adding the user device to the access control list, automatically routing, by the router, outgoing network traffic originating from the user device to the Internet.

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