Patent ID: 7383339

Claim:
A method for establishing device controls for at least one user device, the method comprising: receiving, at a proxy located between a user device and an online access provider device, a request from the user device to access a destination system accessible through the online access provider device, wherein the user device and the proxy are associated with a home network; accessing, at the proxy, device information that is stored at the proxy, that is associated with the user device, and that is reflective of the identity of the user device requesting access to the destination system; appending device control information that is based on the accessed device information and that is reflective of the identity of the user device requesting access to the destination system to the request to access the destination system, wherein the device control information is indicative of one of a client type of the user device, a device type of the user device, a platform type of the user device, or an operating environment of the user device; transmitting, from the proxy over the Internet, the request to access the destination system and the appended device control information to the online access provider device that is external to the home network; and enabling the user device to access one or more services provided by the destination system based on a determination by the online access provider device that the services are available to devices of one of the client type of the user device, the device type of the user device, the platform type of the user device, or the operating environment of the user device.