Patent ID: 7167923

Claim:
A system for selectively bridging and routing data packets, comprising: a gateway device coupling a private network and a public network, the gateway device comprising: a physical port for coupling to the private network; a physical port for coupling to the public network; a network device driver for each physical port configured to convert data packets back and forth between an Ethernet protocol and a network protocol of the private network; a network device driver for each physical port configured to convert data packets back and forth between an Ethernet protocol and a network protocol of the public network; a bridging module for routing each data packet to a appropriate network device driver based on each data packet's intended destination; a look-up module for use by the bridging module to store device addresses and physical port information; a Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) module and PPPoE Media Access Control (MAC) table for identifying and routing PPPoE data packets between a device on the private network and the public network using a first public Internet Protocol (IP) address without restricting other devices on the private network from accessing the public network using a second public IP address and allowing the device on the private network to bypass IP translation of the gateway device; and a look-up module for use by the PPPoE module to store device addresses and physical port information.