Patent ID: 8180902

Claim:
A method of initiating a connection between transparent network devices, the method comprising: intercepting a first message from a client device and addressed to a server device, wherein the first message includes a first sequence number and is adapted to initiate a first connection between the client device and the server device; creating a first modified version of the first message adapted to initiate a second connection with a transparent network device in addition to the first connection with the server; sending the first modified version of the first message towards the server device; intercepting a second message from the server device and addressed to the client device, wherein the second message is adapted to continue the initiation of the first connection between the client device and the server device; determining if the second message was previously intercepted by the transparent network device; and in response to the determination that the second message was previously intercepted by the transparent network device, sending a second modified version of the first message towards the server, wherein the second modified version of the first message is adapted to continue the initiation of the second connection with the transparent network device; wherein the second modified version of the first message includes a source address, a destination address, and a sequence number equal to a source address, a destination address, and a sequence number included in the first modified version of the first message.