Cisco Technology, Inc.

Dan Wang

Frank Hung

Allen Huotari

Frank C Lin

Sheng-Chiao Chang

Methods and systems are provided for assisting installation of network devices including determining the type (e.g., consumer grade or Carrier Grade) of an upstream Network Address Translation (NAT) device in a double NAT environment (e.g., Large Scale NAT or NAT444) and automatically enabling or disabling NAT or bridging in the network device as may be needed or desired according to attributes that are deduced about the upstream network device. An example of a method includes: broadcasting a Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) DISCOVER packet to an upstream network; receiving a DHCP OFFER from an upstream Network Address Translation (NAT) device in response to the DHCP DISCOVER packet; deducing attributes of the upstream NAT device with assistance of information from the received DHCP OFFER; and determining whether or not to disable Network Address Translation and bridge to the upstream network according to the deduced attributes.

Determining the type of upstream network address translation from a home gateway

An apparatus is provided in one example embodiment and includes an earpiece that includes at least one switch that senses physical contact with an end user operating the apparatus. The contact triggers an application to be initiated for the apparatus. In more specific embodiments, one or more additional switches are provided to sense physical contact from the end user and trigger the application based on at least two of the switches sensing the contact. In still other embodiments, a microphone is provided and is coupled to a body element and operable to receive voice data from the end user.

Apparatus, system, and method for audio communications

A device for determining network parameters may include one or more antennae and a processor. For example, the device may include multiple antennae so that direction information for one or more wireless network sources may be determined. Network parameters may include security information for the network, network name information, and/or other information. The processor included in the device may not be configured to transmit and receive information on an information communication connection with the wireless network source(s); for example, the device may be a stand-alone device separate from a user device (such as a personal computer) configured to transmit and receive information on an information communication connection with the wireless network source(s). In other embodiments, the device may be at least partially integrated with a user device (e.g., may have a separate processor but be included in a user device housing).

Growing community of inventors

Irvine, CA, United States of America

Dan Wang