Abstract: A short-range RF network deployed at a site larger than the coverage area of a single short-range RF transceiver includes a plurality of short-range RF transceivers deployed with overlapping coverage areas and accessible through a gateway, and accommodates terminal devices to establish communication through any transceivers with the gateway or with other of the terminal devices. The system further includes a WAP/Web server in communication with the Internet and in communication with the gateway. Terminal devices may establish Internet sessions through a node, the gateway, the WAP/Web server, and the Internet with remote Web servers or with remote users, and are assigned PPP IP numbers for such sessions. A terminal device which roams from the coverage area of one node to the coverage area of another node, and which is accordingly assigned a new PPP IP number, may continue in an Internet session by virtue of a shared database associated with the WAP/Web server and updated by the gateway.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of transmitting a message from a wireless radio-frequency short-range communication network (20) via a gateway (21) to a network (14, 24) external to the communication network (20). The method comprises receiving a first message (41) via a short-range radio link at the gateway from a terminal device (23) of the short-range communication network (20), the first message being addressed to an element (25, 34) external to the short-range communication network, and the first message comprising a network address of said terminal device as a transmitter's address and a first port number as a source port number, the network address of the terminal device being used inside the short-range communication network.