Patent ID: 7554995

Claim:
A method of establishing a communications path for a user host device through a foreign gateway, wherein the user host device is configured to communicate through a home gateway by using an IP address of the home gateway, and wherein the foreign gateway has an IP address different from the home gateway, the method comprising the steps of: receiving at the foreign gateway an ARP request packet transmitted from the user host device over the communications path, wherein the ARP request packet includes at least a sender IP address that corresponds to an IP address of the user host device, a sender hardware address that correspond to a hardware address of the user host device, and a target IP address that corresponds to the IP address of the home gateway; responding by the foreign gateway to the ARP request packet by transmitting over the communications path an ARP response packet that includes at least a sender IP address that corresponds to the IP address of the home gateway, a sender hardware address that corresponds to a hardware address of the foreign gateway, a target IP address that corresponds to the IP address of the user host device, and a target hardware address that corresponds to the hardware address of the user host device; and receiving at the foreign gateway a network packet transmitted from the user host device, wherein the network packet comprises at least a target IP address that is different from the IP address of the home gateway and a target hardware address that corresponds to the hardware address of the foreign gateway.