Patent ID: 8266248

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a gateway of a home network in response to a request for a scanning service, a query for a home network location of a scanning component where the scanning service is accessed; determining to provide from the gateway to an e-commerce service provider, the network location in response to the query; receiving a confirmation dialog from the service provider in response to the request for the scanning service, wherein the confirmation dialog includes the network location where the scanning service is accessed; determining to access the network location via the confirmation dialog to initiate obtaining descriptors that describe a composition of the home network; determining to obtain, via the scanning component coupled to the home network, the home network composition descriptors, wherein the home network composition descriptors are obtained in response to the request for the scanning service directed to the service provider; determining to obtain, via the scanning component, media file data that describes media of one or more devices of the home network, wherein the scanning component comprises the gateway; determining to facilitate, via the scanning component, comparison of the home network composition descriptors to descriptors of products available from the service provider, wherein the comparison determines compatibility of the products with the composition of the home network and the gateway assists in scanning on behalf of the service provider; and determining to communicate to a user an identity of compatible products selected from the products based on the comparison, wherein the determination to obtain descriptors comprises sending queries over the home network to the one or more devices and gathering the descriptors over the home network from the one or more devices.