Patent attributes
A method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable medium to determine whether a device having access to a network is wireless. A method for determining whether a device is wireless includes sending a specially-constructed packet to the device via a network. The packet is constructed so that the source address for the packet is a physical address on the network for the device. If the device does not send a response to the packet, a determination is made that the device is wireless. If the device sends a response to the packet, a determination is made that the device is wired. In one embodiment of the invention, the physical address for the device is a Media Access Control (MAC) address. The initial packet may, for example, request the physical address for the device and may be sent in response to detecting a communication to or from the suspect device.
