Patent ID: 8549115

Claim:
An apparatus for upgrading firmware on an internet sharing device, the apparatus comprising: a memory, in the internet sharing device, configured to store firmware for the internet sharing device and to store access information for a firmware server; a lookup part, in the internet sharing device, configured to access the firmware server using the access information stored in the memory, to look up a version of the firmware in the firmware server, and to determine whether the version of the firmware in the firmware server is new based on a comparison to a version of the firmware stored in the memory; and an upgrade notice part, in the internet sharing device, configured to detect a terminal attempting to access an internet access page on the Internet via the internet sharing device and to redirect the terminal to a webpage giving notice of a firmware upgrade in response to detecting the terminal attempting to access the internet access page and identifying that the lookup part determined that the version of the firmware in the firmware server is new.