Patent ID: 7613142

Claim:
A method of operating a wireless station having a wireless network device, the device capable of providing a layer-2 (L2) interface to a wireless network, the method comprising: without the station required to have previously been or to now be associated with a wireless network, wirelessly receiving L2 data units transmitted from one or more wireless access points (APs) of one or more wireless networks that the station can hear, wherein the L2 data units being wirelessly received include network layer (L3) information; and without the station required to have previously been or to now be associated with a wireless network via the wireless network device, the wireless station gathering information about the received L2 data units that include L3 information, including L2 information and L3 information included with the L2 data units, such that the station can select whether or not to associate with a wireless network according to one or more selection criteria, including the L3 information gathered by the station at in the received L2 data units, without needing to previously be associated with any wireless network.