Patent ID: 7631086

Claim:
A method of enabling network-based communication between a requesting device and a disconnected remote device over a data network, comprising: transmitting a network address request message from the requesting device to an address resolution server, the network address request message requesting a network address for the disconnected remote device; receiving the network address request message at the address resolution server and transmitting a validation message to the disconnected remote device to determine if the disconnected remote device is disconnected from the data network; if no response is received to the validation message, then generating an activation signal and transmitting the activation signal to the disconnected remote device; receiving the activation signal at the remote device, and in response thereto, the remote device obtaining a network address and connecting to the data network; transmitting the obtained network address for the connected remote device to the address resolution server; and providing the obtained network address to the requesting device to thereby enable a network-based communication pathway from the requesting device to the connected remote device over the data network.