Patent ID: 7966382

Claim:
A method implemented in a control point in a local network, comprising: discovering available devices in the local network and at least one remote network capable of being controlled in response to initiating, by the control point, an operation to initialize or update an access list, wherein the devices include at least one media renderer and media servers, wherein the devices are discovered in the local and the at least one remote network by broadcasting a discovery request using one protocol providing the discovery request; authenticating each discovered media server in the at least one remote network; indicating in the access list network addresses of a subset of the discovered media servers in the local network and the at least one remote network, including at least one authenticated media server in the at least one remote network; determining media servers from the discovered media servers having network addresses indicated in the access list; discovering media content in the determined media servers, wherein a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol is implemented in the determined media servers in the local and the at least one remote network and wherein the UPnP protocol is used to communicate and access the media content in the determined media servers in the local and the at least one remote network; indicating the discovered media content from the determined media servers into an aggregate content directory of the media content, wherein the media content is discovered and presented in the aggregate content directory from the media servers in the at least one remote network that were authenticated; enabling the discovered media renderers to access the media content indicated in the aggregate content directory; and selecting a transfer protocol and data format to use to transfer the media content from the media servers to the media renderers.