Patent ID: 8844012

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for sharing an authentication profile between a plurality of computing devices for accessing a particular Wi-Fi network, the method comprising: obtaining, at a first computing device of the computing devices, a list of Wi-Fi networks that are in a range of the first computing device, the computing devices associated with a user; receiving, by the first computing device, an access request from the user to access the particular Wi-Fi network from the list of Wi-Fi networks on the first computing device, the particular Wi-Fi network being an access restricted Wi-Fi network; determining, by the first computing device and in response to the receiving the access request, whether any of the computing devices can approve the access request, the determining including: sending an approval request to a set of the computing devices that are in proximity to the first computing device for approving the access request, the sending the approval request using a short range wireless communication; responsive to a determination that a second computing device of the set of computing devices can approve the access request, obtaining an approval from the second computing device for accessing the particular Wi-Fi network on the first computing device, the obtaining including: presenting, by the second computing device, a notification on the second computing device requesting the user to approve the access request, and obtaining, upon approval of the access request by the user, the authentication profile containing authentication information for accessing the particular Wi-Fi network from the second computing device, the obtaining using the short range wireless communication, the obtaining including requesting, by the second computing device, a server computer to verify whether the first computing device is a member of a trusted devices group of which the second computing device is a member; and accessing, by the first computing device, the particular Wi-Fi network using the authentication profile obtained from the second computing device.