Applying Sequenced Instructions to Connect Through Captive Portals

• US 20150142946A1
• Filed: 11/15/2013
• Published: 05/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Alam, Mohammad Shabbir, Banks, Nicholas A., Goyal, Piyush, Gray, James Christopher, Guday, Shai, Kuehnel, Thomas W., Lamba, Triptpal Singh, MacDonald, David Neil, Mazandarany, Darya, Nabar, Sidharth Uday, Rice, Christopher R., Sharma, Saumaya, Assad, Javier Flores, Stamper, Douglas E.
• Granted Patent: US 10,382,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/36 by user or terminal equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Embodiments apply a set of sequenced instructions to connect to a network through a captive portal. A computing device detects a network access point and obtains the instruction set corresponding to the network access point. The instruction set is derived by a cloud service from crowdsourced data describing interactions between mobile computing devices and the network access point. Applying the instruction set includes performing actions such as navigating web pages to accept terms and conditions, provide user or device information, and more.

Claims

1. A system for automatically connecting to a network through a captive portal based on crowdsourced instructions, said system comprising:

a memory area associated with a mobile computing device, said memory area storing a plurality of instruction sets for connecting to captive portals, each of the plurality of instruction sets being associated with one of the captive portals, the plurality of instruction sets being received from a cloud service; and

a processor programmed to;

detect one of the captive portals within range of the mobile computing device;

identify, from the memory area, one of the plurality of instruction sets associated with the detected one of the captive portals; and

apply the identified one of the plurality of instruction sets to the detected one of the captive portals to obtain access to the network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to identify the one of the plurality of instruction sets by searching the memory area based on a service set identifier (SSID) of the detected one of the captive portals.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified one of the plurality of instruction sets comprises machine-readable instructions.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the processor is programmed to apply the identified one of the plurality of instruction sets by executing each of the machine-readable instructions.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to apply the identified one of the plurality of instruction sets without input from a user of the mobile computing device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to identify the one of the plurality of instruction sets and said apply the identified one of the plurality of instruction sets automatically in response to detecting the one of the captive portals.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to establish a connection to the network through the captive portal after applying the identified one of the plurality of instruction sets.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of instruction sets describes interactions between the mobile computing device and one of the captive portals.

9. A method comprising:

detecting, by a computing device, a network access point, the network access point acting as a captive portal to a network;

requesting, from a cloud service, a sequenced instruction set associated with the detected network access point;

receiving the requested sequenced instruction set, the received sequenced instruction set being derived from crowdsourced data describing interactions between mobile computing devices and the detected network access point; and

applying the received sequenced instruction set to the captive portal to obtain access to the network via the network access point.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising collecting report data describing application of the received sequenced instruction set to the captive portal.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending the collected report data to the cloud service, the cloud service modifying the sequenced instruction set based on the collected report data.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving an updated version of the sequenced instruction set from the cloud service without input from a user of the computing device.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the received sequenced instruction set has one or more expressions therein, and wherein applying the received sequenced instruction set comprises replacing the one or more expressions with data particular to the computing device and/or particular to a user of the computing device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the data comprises at least one of the following:

an electronic mail address of the user, a telephone number of the user, a name of the user, an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the user, or a media access control (MAC) address of the computing device.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein applying the received sequenced instruction set comprises establishing a connection to the network, and further comprising automatically securing the connection based on an instructions in the received sequenced instruction set.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein detecting the network access point comprises detecting a plurality of the network access points, and further comprising designating one of the plurality of network access points as a preferred network access point based on a configuration of the computing device and/or an account of a user of the computing device.

17. One or more computer storage media embodying computer-executable components, said components comprising:

a tile component that when executed causes at least one processor to intermittently receive sets of sequenced instructions, each of the sets corresponding to at least one of a plurality of network access points and being derived from crowdsourced data describing interactions performed by mobile computing devices when connecting to the plurality of network access points;

a communications interface component that when executed causes at least one processor to detect, by a computing device, one of the plurality of network access points, the detected network access point acting as a captive portal to a network; and

an auto-connect component that when executed causes at least one processor to automatically replay the set of sequenced instructions received by the tile component and corresponding to the network access point detected by the communications interface component to obtain access to the network through the captive portal.

18. The computer storage media of claim 17, further comprising an enforcement component that when executed causes at least one processor to selectively allow, based on terms of service associated with the detected network access point, one or more applications on the computing device to transmit and receive data on the network after the auto-connect component obtains the access to the network.

19. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the computing device is associated with a user, and wherein the auto-connect component further:

receives a single sign-on token from the detected network access point after obtaining access to the network, and

shares the received single sign-on token with another computing device of the user.

20. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the auto-connect component further provides, to a user of the computing device, a summary of terms of service associated with the detected network access point, the summary being derived from data associated with the set of sequenced instructions received by the tile component and corresponding to the network access point detected by the communications interface component.