Patent ID: 7873347

Claim:
In a wireless local area network (WLAN) gateway system comprising: an access gateway connected to a server; a session controller connected to said access gateway; a charging element connected to said session controller; said charging element maintaining charging details associated with a mobile handset; a rating element connected to said session controller; said rating element maintaining rating profile information associated with said mobile handset; an interface connected to said access gateway for connecting said mobile handset to said access gateway via said interface; a computing device connected to said access gateway via a WLAN access network; a method for providing access to said server from said computing device comprising: receiving at said access gateway authentication information for a subscriber associated with said computing device; sending a first message from said access gateway to said mobile handset; and, if no reply to said first message is received within a configurable interval from said subscriber then denying said computing device access to said server; and if a reply to said first message is received, then permitting said computing device to access said server and, during said access; sending an instruction from said access gateway to said rating element, to determine a rate for packets carried between said computing device and said WLAN access network to establish a rate of charge for each of said packets according to a different classification assigned to each of said packets; and sending an instruction from said access gateway to said charging element representing charging details associated with the access of said server by said computing device; said charging details based on said rate.