Patent ID: 7581096

Claim:
A computer controlled method in a provisioning device in a networked computer system comprising an execution mechanism configured to execute the method, the method comprising: establishing communication between the provisioning device and the network device over a preferred channel, wherein the preferred channel is a bidirectional, location-limited channel which has a demonstrative identification property and an authenticity property; pre-authenticating said network device, wherein pre-authenticating said network device involves: exchanging key commitment information between said provisioning device and said network device over said bidirectional preferred channel; exchanging keys between said provisioning device and said network device over a bidirectional channel other than the preferred channel; and verifying the received keys using the received key commitment information on both the said provisioning device and said network device; providing provisioning information to said network device over said bidirectional preferred channel, wherein the provisioning information comprises: a first set of provisioning information which is used exclusively to establish secure and authenticated communication between the provisioning device and the said network device using a second channel; and other provisioning information comprising at least one of application-specific information and device-specific assignment information; whereby said network device can automatically configure itself for secure communication over a network responsive to said first and other provisioning information, wherein the secure communication can be over the second channel.