Patent ID: 7861082

Claim:
In a subscriber television system having a headend, a server, which is remote from the headend, and a plurality of client-receivers for receiving programming from the headend and the server, a validation-message generated by a given client-receiver of the plurality of client-receivers and embodied in a computer readable medium for validating the given client-receiver with the server, the validation-message comprising: a client-identifier associated with the given client-receiver; and an authentication-token, wherein the authentication-token is produced by providing an input to a one-way function, wherein the input to the one-way function includes at least a portion of a validator and at least a portion of the client-identifier, wherein the validator is transmitted from the headend to both the server and the given client-receiver, and wherein responsive to the server receiving the validation-message, the server determines whether the given client-receiver is a valid client-receiver of the subscriber television system using at least a portion of the authentication-token and at least a portion of the validator.