Patent ID: 7813354

Claim:
A method for detecting a wireless access device on a network, the method comprising: storing one or more organizationally unique identifiers that comprise the first three octets of one or more registered addresses; receiving from the network a packet with an address; searching the identifiers, wherein a more frequently encountered predetermined percentage of identifiers is searched first; comparing the first three octets of the received address with the identifiers; determining if the received address includes one of the stored identifiers; determining an operating system associated with the received address, when comparing the received address results in a match between the received address and at least one of the registered addresses; comparing the determined operating system with one or more stored operating systems, such that at least one of the stored operating systems corresponds to the wireless access device; and indicating that the received packet corresponds to the wireless access device based on the first three octets of the received address and when the determined operating system matches at least one of the stored operating systems.