Cisco Technology, Inc.

Nolan D O'Brien

Siddhartha Dattagupta

Rodney Bruce Smith

Aidan Nicholas Low

Mike Mouawad

Techniques are described for identifying a wireless access point device using beacon messages and probe responses. An access point may generate and broadcast beacon messages which include an information element containing information specific to the device as well as to the current context of the device. For example, the information element may include a device vendor ID, product ID, and a device-unique ID. That is, the information element provides information related to the device itself independently from the configuration of the wireless network which the beacon message (or probe response) is associated with.

Method and apparatus for identifying wireless access points using beacon frames

Techniques are presented for configuring multiple client devices to connect to a network device (e.g., a wireless router). In one embodiment, a setup application executing on one of the client devices determines if the network device has previously been configured. For example, the network device may broadcast a predefined network name to advertise that a user access point has been configured. If the polling setup application detects the predefined network name, then it can skip any steps that would configure the network device. Accordingly, the setup application only configures the client device to connect to the network device.

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Las Vegas, NV, United States of America

Nolan D O'Brien