Patent ID: 7904712

Claim:
A method of creating a unique identifier of a first network, the method comprising: identifying, with a first device of the first network, a gateway device of the first network; determining, with the first device, a value uniquely associated with the gateway device; creating, with the first device, a unique identifier for the network based upon the determined value, wherein the determined value is a physical address for the gateway device, and wherein identifying the gateway device for the first network includes identifying at least one network adapter employed by the first device to communicate with the gateway device, wherein the first device is configured to delete an address resolution protocol (ARP) entry maintained by an operating system of the first device and corresponding to a logical address of the gateway device, and wherein the first device is configured to communicate an ARP request message to the gateway device and to receive a media access control (MAC) address from the gateway device that is stored as a new entry in an ARP table of the first device, and wherein the determining of the value uniquely associated with the gateway device is executed only if the first device determines that the logical address of the gateway device corresponds to a router; and generating a billing record using the physical address, wherein the billing record includes a number of registered devices on the first network that are using an application, and wherein the first device is included in the registered devices that are using the application.