Patent ID: 8125965

Claim:
A multi-mode combination broadband wireless card and router system, comprising: a broadband wireless card capable of providing a wireless carrier configuration interface display; a wireless router capable of providing a wireless router configuration interface display coupled to the broadband wireless card for routing network communications between a wide area network and a local area network (LAN) including a plurality of non-server PCs, the wireless router including a plurality of ports for coupling the plurality of non-server PCs to the wireless router, the plurality of ports including at least one of a universal serial bus (USB) port, a wired LAN port, or a wireless LAN port; at least one of the broadband wireless card and the wireless router including a processor and a module executed by the processor, the module configured to automatically and selectively provide to each user of each of the plurality of non-server PCs, either the wireless router configuration interface display or the wireless carrier configuration interface display, based upon a type of port coupling a PC of the plurality of non-server PC to the wireless router, the module configured to: identify for each non-server computer of the plurality of non-server PCs the type of port coupling each of the non-server PCs to the wireless router, modify a network access mode for each PC of the plurality of non-server PCs in accordance with a wireless router port identified as being in use and providing to a user of each of the plurality of non-server PCs, either the wireless carrier configuration interface display, or the wireless router configuration interface display to provide two distinct modes of operation based on the wireless router port identified as being in use.