Patent ID: 8184542

Claim:
A method for verifying a customer premises connection to a communication system having a plurality of ports, each of which serves a corresponding customer premises, the method comprising: using a customer identifier to obtain a customer internet protocol address from an internet service provider database, the existence of the customer internet protocol address indicating that a customer is online; when the customer internet protocol address exists, transmitting from a computing device a known quantity of data to the customer internet protocol address corresponding to a specific customer premises; monitoring a quantity of data received at a first trial port of the plurality of ports, the monitoring performed by the computing device monitoring an inbound traffic reading from the first trial port; if the known quantity of data matches the monitored quantity of data received at the first trial port, then verifying the customer premises connection to the first trial port; and if the known quantity of data does not match the monitored quantity of data received at the first trial port, then monitoring a quantity of data received at a second trial port of the plurality of ports and, if the known quantity of data matches the monitored quantity of data received at the second trial port, then verifying the customer premises connection to the second trial port; wherein when the customer internet protocol address does not exist in the internet service provider database, generating an error in a verification information table.