Patent ID: 7382741

Claim:
A method for use in a wireless network client to configure the wireless network client to access a wireless local area network (WLAN), wherein the WLAN includes multiple wireless access points and a computing device which is already configured to access the WLAN using one of the multiple wireless access points, the method comprising: a discovery step of discovering a wireless local network identity of each of the multiple wireless access points in the WLAN; a monitoring step of monitoring each identified wireless local network identity for detection of a predetermined broadcast message, wherein the predetermined broadcast message is broadcast via said one wireless access point by the already-configured computing device, and wherein the predetermined broadcast message contains a network address of the already-configured computing device; and a configuration step of configuring, in the case that the predetermined broadcast message is detected in the monitoring step, the wireless network client to access the WLAN via the wireless access point corresponding to the wireless local network identity on which the predetermined broadcast message was detected, and sending a configuration announcement message to the already-configured computing device from the wireless network client on the wireless local network, by using the network address of the already-configured computing device as contained in the predetermined broadcast message, so as to signal the already-configured computing device to terminate broadcast of the predetermined broadcast message.