Patent ID: 7286537

Claim:
An apparatus allocating addresses, the apparatus comprising: a network device being connected to a service provider and being connected to at least two hosts, the at least two hosts including a first host, the service provider allocating a first protocol address to the first host, the first protocol address being included in frames sent from each one of the at least two hosts, said network device comprising: a first module receiving frames from the hosts, modifying source medium access control addresses and port numbers of the frames received from the hosts, and forwarding the frames having the modified source addresses and port numbers to the service provider; said first module storing the modified source medium access control addresses and port numbers in a first table; said first module receiving frames from the service provider, accessing the first table, modifying destination medium access control addresses and port numbers of the frames received from the service provider in dependence upon the addresses and port numbers stored in the first table, and forwarding the frames having the modified destination addresses and port numbers to the hosts corresponding to the modified destination addresses and port numbers; and a server spoofer transmitting and assigning the first protocol address to all of the hosts other than the first host.