Patent ID: 8458293

Claim:
A pocket-size authentication token apparatus for authenticating a user to a network, the apparatus comprising: a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device connector for coupling and communicating with a non-network-enabled device; a network connector for physically coupling with a communications port of a separate wireless network access device and communicating with the separate wireless network access device, wherein said network connector is in addition to said USB device connector; a storage device for storing user profile data associated with the user; one or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for connecting the non-network-enabled device to the network by providing a network communication protocol needed to communicate with the network; one or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for automatically, without user intervention, using profile data stored on the storage device to access an online account for said user on a network, utilizing said network communication protocol via said wireless network access device; one or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for receiving and storing data from said non-network-enabled device via said USB device connector; one or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for transferring said data from said non-network-enabled device to said automatically accessed online account for said user, utilizing said wireless network access device; one or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for receiving and storing data from said online account, wherein said data from said online account comprises commands to the non-network-enabled device based on the type of non-network-enabled device; and one or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for determining whether said data from said online account is to be transferred to the non-network-enabled device and transferring said data from said online account to said non-network-enabled device via said USB device connector.