Patent ID: 8340103

Claim:
A method for creating a secure network communications tunnel, comprising: assigning a Media Access Control (MAC) address to a virtual network interface card associated with a local device and an Internet Protocol (IP) address to a physical network interface card associated with the local device; communicating an IP to MAC address translation associated with the local device to a remote device, wherein the IP to MAC address translation maps the IP address assigned to the physical network interface card associated with the local device to the MAC address assigned to the virtual network interface card associated with the local device; receiving, from the remote device, an incoming HTTP request that encapsulates secure data and the IP to MAC address translation associated with the local device; and transmitting an outgoing HTTP request that encapsulates secure data and an IP to MAC address translation associated with the remote device to the remote device, wherein transmitting the outgoing HTTP request to the remote device includes: sending Layer-3 data to the virtual network interface card associated with the local device, wherein the Layer-3 data includes the IP to MAC address translation associated with the remote device, which maps an IP address assigned to a physical network interface card associated with the remote device to a MAC address assigned to a virtual network interface card associated with the remote device; encapsulating the Layer-3 data into Layer-2 data; encapsulating the Layer-2 data into the outgoing HTTP request; sending the outgoing HTTP request to the physical network interface card associated with the local device; and encapsulating the outgoing HTTP request into a physical data frame to transmit the secure data encapsulated therein to the remote device via an HTTP server or proxy.