Patent ID: 7301900

Claim:
A method for hub-based network access, the method comprises: receiving packets from at least one of a plurality of clients; determining whether a network access application is active for the at least one of the plurality of clients by interpreting a header section of at least one of the packets to identify the at least one of the plurality of clients, interpreting the header section of the at least one of the packets to determine a type of network access, and determining whether the network application is active based on the identity of the at least one of the plurality of clients and on the type of network access; when the network access application is active for the at least one of the plurality of clients, processing data of at least one of the packets in accordance with the network access application to produce network data; determining access to a network connection for transmission of the network data based on a client-access-to-the-network-connection scheme to produce a determined network access; transporting the network data via the network connection based on the determined network access; and when the network access application is not active for the at least one of the plurality of clients, in response, opening a network access application for the at least one of the plurality of clients.