Network switch and method for automatically establishing connection to a wide area network

A network switch to automatically establish a connection to a wide area network (WAN), wherein the network switch is to be coupled to a network access device that is within a local area network (LAN) and that acts as a gateway to the WAN, wherein the network switch includes a plurality of ports any one of which may be coupled to the network access device and operate as a current uplink port for establishing the connection to the WAN, the network switch comprising:

• the plurality of ports;
• a current set of port configurations that includes a current port configuration for each of the plurality of ports, wherein each current port configuration is to identify a set of zero or more Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifiers (IDs), wherein network traffic must meet the current port configuration of the ports on which that network traffic is received and transmitted to avoid that network traffic from being blocked at those ports;
• and
• a WAN connectivity determination module coupled to the plurality of ports and configured to,
• attempt to establish connectivity to the WAN over the plurality of ports with a first set of one or more Internet Protocol (IP) configurations using a first set of port configurations as the current set of port configurations, wherein an IP configuration includes a VLAN ID, an IP address for the network switch, a subnet mask, an IP address of the gateway, and an IP address of a Domain Name System (DNS) server, and
• responsive to the network switch determining that connectivity to the WAN has not been established, automatically perform the following,
• switch to a mode that has a first security measure and that relaxes the current set of port configurations from the first set of port configurations to a second set of port configurations, and
• attempt to establish connectivity to the WAN with a second set of one or more IP configurations using the current set of port configurations.

A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by a network switch, cause the network switch to perform a method to automatically establish a connection to a wide area network (WAN), wherein the network switch is to be coupled to a network access device that is within a local area network (LAN) and that acts as a gateway to the WAN, wherein the network switch includes a plurality of ports any one of which may be coupled to the network access device and operate as a current uplink port for establishing the connection to the WAN, wherein the network switch has a current set of port configurations that includes a current port configuration for each of the plurality of ports, wherein the current port configuration for each of the ports identifies a set of zero or more Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifiers (IDs), wherein network traffic must meet the current port configuration of the ports on which that network traffic is received and transmitted to avoid that network traffic from being blocked at those ports, the method comprising:

• attempting to establish connectivity to the WAN over the plurality of ports with a first set of one or more Internet Protocol (IP) configurations using a first set of port configurations as the current set of port configurations, wherein an IP configuration includes a VLAN ID, an IP address for the network switch, a subnet mask, an IP address of the gateway, and an IP address of a Domain Name System (DNS) server;
• and
• responsive to determining that connectivity to the WAN has not been established, automatically performing the following,
• switching to a mode that has a first security measure and that relaxes the current set of port configurations from the first set of port configurations to a second set of port configurations, and
• attempting to establish connectivity to the WAN with a second set of one or more IP configurations using the current set of port configurations.