System and method for billing for transactions conducted over the internet from within an intranet

A method of billing an account associated with a user's identity for a cost of a transaction conducted between a user through a terminal connected to an Intranet with a merchant which provides goods and/or services through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) which is connected on the Internet, the terminal being assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address that is included in packets transmitted by the terminal, the IP address being removed by a Firewall Gateway that interconnects the Intranet and the Internet from packets transmitted from the terminal onto a connection on the Internet established between the Firewall Gateway to the provider, the connection being identifiable by a Connection ID that unambiguously identifies the connection, the connection ID comprising IP addresses and port numbers associated with each end of the connection, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a signal that associates the user's identity with the IP address assigned to the terminal;
• receiving a signal that associates the Connection ID with the assigned IP address;
• storing the associations between the assigned IP address and the user's identity and between the Connection ID and the assigned IP address;
• receiving a billing signal that associates the cost of the transaction identifier with the Connection ID;
• using the connection ID associated with the billing signal, determining the user's identity from the stored associations between the Connection ID and the assigned IP address, and between the assigned IP address and the user's identity;
• billing the account associated with the user's identity for the cost of the transaction.