Patent ID: 7515549

Claim:
A network device, comprising: one or more processors; and a memory coupled to the one or more processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to: send a Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Through Network Address Translators (NATs) (STUN) message to a STUN server; analyze a response to the STUN message to discover an address and port number combination of a network address translation gateway operating between the network device and the STUN server; send addressing information to a management server, the addressing information including the gateway address and port number combination as well as a unique identifier for the network device and a local address currently assigned to the network device by the gateway; and after sending the addressing information to the management server, intelligently monitor for changes to the gateway address and port number combination and proactively provide said changes to the management server, said intelligent monitoring including: detecting when the local address for the network device is dynamically reassigned by the gateway; and in response to detecting local address reassignment, sending a new STUN message to the STUN server to determine whether the gateway address and port number combination has changed in conjunction with the local address reassignment.