Patent ID: 8307093

Claim:
A method for establishing communication between a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) control point and a UPnP device over a wide area communications network, the method comprising: contacting a third party over the wide area communications network to obtain contact information; accessing the contact information by the UPnP control point, the contact information enabling an authorized user of the UPnP control point to remotely contact the UPnP device over the wide area communications network, the UPnP device storing a list of user identifiers identifying users who are authorized to contact the UPnP device, the list of user identifiers stored in the UPnP device being informed to the third party by the UPnP device before the accessing the contact information, the list of user identifiers identifying the authorized user of the UPnP control point; receiving a machine identifier corresponding to the UPnP device from the third party that pre-provisions a list of machine identifiers including the machine identifier, the list of machine identifiers indicating UPnP devices that the authorized user is authorized to access; constructing a network address based on the machine identifier corresponding to the UPnP device; contacting the UPnP device over the wide area communications network at the network address to establish a network link in accordance with a UPnP protocol; and invoking a service offered by the UPnP device over the network link.