Patent ID: 8171143

Claim:
A method of providing a VPN communication between two or more network devices of unknown network address at least a first one of which network devices does not initially know the other network devices internet network addresses, the method comprising: providing a verification authority connected to the internet remote from the two or more network devices and remote from an internet service provider providing an internet connection to each of the two or more network devices, the verification authority verifying the identity of the two or more internet network devices; providing a configuration server connected to the internet remote from the two or more network devices and remote from the internet service provider providing an internet connection to each of the two or more network devices, the configuration server supplying to each verified internet device the entire configuration data for that verified internet device; providing each of the two or more network devices free of provision to permanently store the user configuration data, each of the devices containing configuration information only sufficient to connect the devices to the internet service provider to request a first IP address, and using that first IP address to connect to the remote verification authority at a designated internet address, providing within each of the two or more network devices, a routine which securely contacts the remote verification authority, providing the identity of the network device, and using the designated internet address of that remote verification authority, and subsequently downloading from a remote configuration authority authorized by the remote verification authority the entire configuration data each time the device is initialized, for one of the two or more internet network devices, each time that device is initialized, reloading that device with the downloaded configuration data, each of the two or more network devices creating a private network in a downlink separate from end user devices in the created private network; and storing the allocated internet network address of the network device at the verification authority, repeating the process for each of the other network devices so that each of the other network devices downloads from the remote configuration server authorized by the remote verification authority the entire configuration data for that particular internet network device each time that particular device is initialized and reloading that particular device with the downloaded configuration data, and storing the allocated internet network address for that particular device at the verification authority, and initiating a VPN communication between two or more of the network devices, by sending an instruction from the verification authority to one of the network devices by supplying to that network device the allocated internet address of at least one of the other network devices so that the recipient internet device can communicate with the other network device.