Patent ID: 6987736

Claim:
A method of maintaining activity in a router to keep the router from entering a lock-up state, comprising the steps of: (a) automatically sending a request from a user computer that is connected to a wide area network by the router which is connected to a modem, the request being sent via the router and the modem toward a first Internet Protocol (IP) address of a backbone of the wide area network to which a response is expected such that the request is sent through and beyond the router and the modem; (b) determining, in the user computer, whether the response has been received from the first IP address of the backbone of the wide area network and when the response has not been received from the first IP address, then automatically sending a request from the user computer via the router and modem toward a second IP address of the backbone of the wide area network and determining, in the user computer, whether the response has been received from the second IP address of the backbone of the wide area network; (c) if no response has been received from the first IP address or the second IP address, displaying a notification message on the user computer indicating that network access to the wide area network is unavailable; and (d) periodically repeating at least steps (a) and (b).