Patent ID: 7673034

Claim:
A wall-mountable data interface, comprising: an enclosure having at least one jack, the enclosure being configured for mounting within a wall cavity such that, after the enclosure is mounted within the wall cavity, the at least one jack is accessible from outside the wall: a user-side communication interface within the enclosure for connection to a personal data device over at least one wired communication connection via the at least one jack and for connection to the personal data device over at least one wireless communication connection; an infrastructure-side communication interface within the enclosure for connection to a plurality of computer resources, the infrastructure-side communication interface being communicably coupled to the user-side communication interface, such that the personal data device can communicate through the user-side communication interface and the infrastructure-side communication interface to at least one of the plurality of computer resources; and a data interface management processor within the enclosure and coupled to the user-side communication interface and the infrastructure-side communication interface and operative to provide information to the personal data device (a) about at least one of the wired and wireless communication connections between the personal data device and the user-side communication interface, (b) about a communication connection between the infrastructure-side communication interface and at least one of the plurality of computer resources, and (c) about services available from the plurality of computer resources, said information provided in a form handled by the personal data device to communicatively inform said user sufficiently to enable said user to diagnose said communication connections and services.