Patent ID: 8594107

Claim:
A method of enabling a user host device to communicate on a network, comprising: receiving, at a first communication system including one or more network devices, an ARP request packet transmitted from a user host device, wherein the ARP request packet includes at least a sender IP address, a sender hardware address, and a target IP address that corresponds to a static IP address of a second communication system, wherein the static IP address of the second communication system is different from any IP address associated with the first communication system; preparing an ARP response packet that includes at least a sender IP address that corresponds to the static IP address of the second communication system, a sender hardware address that corresponds to a hardware address of the first communication system, a target IP address that corresponds to the sender IP address of the ARP request packet, and a target hardware address corresponding to the sender hardware address of the ARP request packet; transmitting the ARP response packet from a network interface of the first communication system; and receiving at the first communication system a network packet transmitted from the user host device and received at the first communication system, wherein the network packet comprises at least a target IP address that differs from the IP addresses of the first and second communication systems and a target hardware address that corresponds to the hardware address of the first communication system.