Patent ID: 7430756

Claim:
In a network access device, an apparatus for constructing and transmitting a password utilized by an authentication device to authenticate the network access device, said apparatus comprising: means for receiving from a user, a plurality of predefined characters forming a password; packet forming means for placing each of the received characters in different ones of a plurality of data packets forming a network password; a memory for storing a plurality of numbers in a predefined number sequence, said numbers identifying a predefined number of blank packets to be inserted between each character-carrying data packet and an adjacent character-carrying data packet in the network password, wherein the packet forming means retrieves the predefined numbers from the memory and inserts the blank packets between each of the character-carrying data packets in the network password in accordance with the retrieved predefined numbers; and means for transmitting the network password to the authentication device with each character-carrying data packet being separated from the adjacent character-carrying data packet in the network password by the predefined number of blank packets.