Patent ID: 8392585

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for testing network connectivity for a network device, comprising: connecting to a network provider; pinging a first server with the aid of the network provider by directing a data packet to a static interne protocol (IP) address of said first server; pinging a second server with the aid of the network provider by directing a data packet to a dedicated uniform resource locator (URL) of said second server; and determining whether to maintain connectivity to said network provider based on whether a response was received by said network device from said first server and/or whether a response was received by said network device from said second server; and connecting to another network provider based on at least one criterion selected from the group consisting of: bandwidth of the another network provider, cost to maintain connectivity to the another network provider, cost to transmit information with the aid of the another network provider, a download rate of the another network provider, and an upload rate of the another network provider.