Patent ID: 7283505

Claim:
A method for configuring a wireless access point in a home network, the method comprising: detecting that a wired connection has been established between a wireless access point and a home-networking gateway associated with a home network; in response to detecting that the wired connection has been established between the wireless access point and the home-networking gateway, automatically establishing a communications session over the wired connection between the wireless access point and the home-networking gateway; accessing wireless configuration information at the home-networking gateway, the wireless configuration information being useful to configure wireless access points to enable wireless communications between the home-networking gateway and one or more wireless devices on the home network through the wireless access points; using the automatically established communications session to communicate the accessed wireless configuration information over the wired connection between the home-networking gateway and the wireless access point; and establishing wireless communications between the home-networking gateway and a wireless device on the home network through the wireless access point based, at least in part, on the wireless configuration information communicated to the wireless access point from the home-networking gateway.