Patent ID: 8276196

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions thereon implementing a method for providing a user with access to a restricted service on a network, the user employing a particular computing device communicatively coupled to the network, the method comprising: receiving credentials from the user upon the user requesting access to the restricted service, the credentials including a user identifier and a master password that is not specific to the computing device; obtaining from the computing device identifying indicia thereof that at least nearly uniquely identifies the computing device; determining from the received user identifier an entry for the user in a credentials database; determining from the entry for the user that the computing device is not registered as having a device-specific password for use by the user with the restricted service inasmuch as the obtained identifying indicia of the computing device does not appear in the entry, but that information on the master password in the received credentials appears in the entry; granting the user access to the restricted service based on the information on the master password in the received credentials appearing in the entry; obtaining from the user a device-specific password for the computing device upon granting the user access to the restricted service; storing the obtained identifying indicia of the computing device and information on the obtained device-specific password for the computing device in a sub-entry of the entry for the user in the credentials database such that the computing device of the user corresponding to the obtained identifying indicia is registered as having a device-specific password for use by the user with the restricted service; wherein the user at a later time may employ the registered computing device to access the restricted service with the corresponding device-specific password; and directing the computing device to an appropriate feature site representative of the restrictive service based on a determined type of the computing device.