Patent ID: 8713641

Claim:
A method of managing access to network resources, the method being performed by a network management system in communication with a portable communication device, the method comprising: receiving, at a communications port of a wireless access point of the network management system from a portable communication device, a connection request for an external server, the connection request comprising one or more network packets; transmitting the connection request from the wireless access point to a controller of the network management system; determining, using the controller, whether to provide the portable communication device with access to the external server, the determination being based at least in part on comparing an attribute included in the connection request to a user profile database; and upon determining that the portable communication device is not at that time permitted with access to the external server, redirecting the portable communication device to an authentication system, the redirection including: sending transmission control protocol handshake completion data from the communications port of the wireless access point to the portable communication device in response to the connection request, said transmission control protocol handshake completion data configured to indicate that it was sent by the external server; receiving at the controller via the wireless access point a request from the portable communication device for a network resource of the external server; receiving, at the wireless access point from the controller, the redirection data comprising resource identification data that identifies the authentication system, the redirection data configured to cause the portable communication device to be redirected to the authentication system; and sending, from the communications port of the wireless access point to the portable communication device, a browser redirect message based upon the redirection data; whereby the portable communication device provides authentication-related information wherein the portable communication system can be provided access to the network resource, wherein the network management system need not communicate with the external server to redirect the portable communication device.