Abstract: Strong, fire-retardant material is constructed in such a way as to wrap around metal and non-metal, round or square support columns making them more attractive and environmentally pleasing. The material is especially made to wrap around vertical or horizontal poles such as deck poles and house pilings but is not limited to these applications. Strong nylon tie straps and Velcro strips attach the material firmly to the support column. These methods allow the material to be easily removed and another material color or image installed. The material is made to accommodate a range of pole diameters thus allowing one size to fit many pole circumferences. The material may be embellished with digital print images, light strips, overhead light assemblies, solid colors, striped colors, ascending bubbles complementing the material's images and top-mounted craft assemblies. These craft assemblies wrap around and attach to the pole to compliment the appropriate material design.

Abstract: An SSL VPN gateway or other type of secure gateway is operative to control access to an enterprise network of a communication system. The gateway in accordance with an aspect of the invention comprises an alarm manager. The alarm manager receives an alarm from a vendor product that is part of a set of internal resources of the enterprise network, and routes the alarm to an external service provider for processing. The gateway receives from the service provider, responsive to the alarm, a federated identity which encompasses a plurality of technicians, expert systems or other servicing elements of the service provider. The gateway may grant one or more particular servicing elements of the service provider access to the alarm-generating vendor product based on the federated identity.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for translating a telephone number to a packet network address in a soft modem. A connection over a network is established to a device by receiving a request to establish a connection over a network to a device, the request including a telephone number associated with the device; accessing a database, such as a Domain Name Server, to translate the telephone number to a packet network address; and establishing a connection to the device over a packet network using the packet network address. The Domain Name Server can optionally map the telephone number to the packet network address.

Abstract: A system for controlling network access to products. The system includes a security appliance connected to a product under operational control of a first entity, a product connection platform and a user terminal under operational control of a second entity, the product connection platform being accessed by the user terminal, and a trust relationship established between the first entity and the second entity based on predetermined criteria between the first entity and the second entity, the trust relationship being represented by a certificate or public/private key exchange. Authentication of access by a user of the user terminal of the second entity to the product of the first entity is deferred to the product connection platform of the second entity based on the predetermined criteria of the trust relationship, whereupon if authentication is granted, the user is provided access to the product.