Patent ID: 7675923

Claim:
A method to facilitate communications between devices of two discrete privately addressed networks, wherein each of the two discrete privately addressed networks are coupled via a publicly addressed network and have a corresponding gateway that operably couples to the publicly addressed network, the method comprising: providing a privately addressed first home network bridge in a first one of the two discrete privately addressed networks, wherein the privately addressed first home network bridge couples to a first gateway as corresponds to the first one of the two discrete privately addressed networks, the first gateway being interposed between the privately addressed first home network bridge and the publicly addressed network; providing a second privately addressed home network bridge in a second one of the two discrete privately addressed networks, wherein the second privately addressed home network bridge couples to a second gateway as corresponds to the second one of the two discrete privately addressed networks, the second gateway being interposed between the second privately addressed home network bridge and the publicly addressed network; establishing a network tunnel connection between the first privately addressed home network bridge and the second privately addressed home network bridge via the first gateway, the publicly addressed network, and the second gateway; causing at least the first privately addressed home network bridge to serve as a proxy, via the second privately addressed home network bridge, for devices of the second discrete privately addressed network and as a router to route communications sourced by the devices of the second discrete privately addressed network to devices of the first discrete privately addressed network, wherein said causing further comprises: receiving from the second privately addressed home network bridge via the network tunnel connection, at the first privately addressed home network bridge, private network addresses as are assigned within the second discrete privately addressed network for devices of the second discrete privately addressed network; and within the first privately addressed home network bridge, mapping each of the private network addresses as are assigned within the second discrete privately addressed network to a locally available private network address within the first discrete privately addressed network.