Offering and provisioning secured wireless virtual private network services

• US 8,392,560 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2006
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, David, Kuehnel, Thomas W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hua
• Application Number:
  US11/413,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20070255840A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,503 Days
• Field of Search: 709/225
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/162 at the data link layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

An electronic device may present a user interface for making selections related to connecting to a network or selecting a network from a plurality of available networks. Additionally, a user interface may give a user an opportunity to secure to an open, unsecure, connection, for example, an ad-hoc wireless connection, such as may be found at a coffee shop. A selection of security offerings may be made from a user interface screen including pre-populated service providers. A user may be allowed to save preferences for connecting to new networks, as well as preferences related to previously used networks. Further, the user may save preferences for invoking security services on a per-network or pan-network basis. The security service may a known tunneling protocol (i.e. VPN), such as L2TP or PPTP.

Claims

1. A method of securing a network connection between a client device and an endpoint server comprising:

determining at a client device using a wireless network interface of the client device that at least one wireless network is in range;

determining at the client device when at least one existing wireless network is available for connecting with;

presenting a user interface;

i) showing the at least one existing wireless network and ii) enabling the user to make a selection for connecting to the at least one existing wireless network;

receiving an indication of a selected wireless network with which to connect;

determining that the selected wireless network is unsecured;

connecting to the selected wireless network to form a network-level connection;

after the connecting, based on the determining that the selected wireless network is unsecured, presenting a user interface indicating a service provider that secures network connections using a virtual private network (VPN);

receiving a user input indicating selection of the service provider; and

in accordance with the user input, storing on the client device security information such that a next time the client device forms a next network-level connection to the wireless network the security information causes the next network-level connection to be automatically secured using the VPN.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising reading the security information after determining when at least one existing wireless network connection is available.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising installing a network connection manager that determines using the wireless network interface of the client device when one or more wireless networks are available for connection, selects the wireless network with which to connect, presents information about the selected network, and activates the VPN without action on the part of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising securing the network-level connection when the receiving a response to an offering of a plurality of service providers including the service provider.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the VPN uses either a layer two tunneling protocol (L2TP) or a point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored security information causes the client device to use the VPN to secure any network connection.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored security information includes information indicating a user selection regarding a preference for use of the VPN with respect to future network connections.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the security information causing the next network-level connection to be automatically secured using the VPN occurs after the wireless network has again been presented and selected by the user using the user interface.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media, wherein the storage media is not a signal, the storage media storing information to enable a computing device to perform a process, the process comprising:

determining at a client device using a wireless network interface of the client device that at least one wireless network is in range;

determining at the client device when at least one existing wireless network is available for connecting with;

presenting a user interface;

i) showing the at least one existing wireless network and ii) enabling the user to make a selection for connecting to the at least one existing wireless network;

receiving an indication of a selected wireless network with which to connect;

determining that the selected wireless network is unsecured;

connecting to the selected wireless network to form a network-level connection;

after the connecting, based on the determining that the selected wireless network is unsecured, presenting a user interface indicating a service provider that secures network connections using a virtual private network (VPN);

receiving a user input indicating selection of the service provider; and

in accordance with the user input, storing on the client device security information such that a next time the client device forms a next network-level connection to the wireless network the security information causes the next network-level connection to be automatically secured using the VPN.

10. A client device comprising:

a processor and storage;

the processor determining at the client device using a wireless network interface of the client device that at least one wireless network is in range;

the processor determining at the client device when at least one existing wireless network is available for connecting with;

the processor presenting a user interface;

i) showing the at least one existing wireless network and ii) enabling the user to make a selection for connecting to the at least one existing wireless network;

the processor receiving an indication of a selected wireless network with which to connect;

the processor determining that the selected wireless network is unsecured;

the wireless network interface connecting to the selected wireless network to form a network-level connection;

after the connecting, based on the determining that the selected wireless network is unsecured, the processor presenting a user interface indicating a service provider that secures network connections using a virtual private network (VPN);

the processor receiving a user input indicating selection of the service provider; and

in accordance with the user input, the storage storing on the client device security information such that a next time the client device forms a next network-level connection to the wireless network the security information causes the next network-level connection to be automatically secured using the VPN.