Authorizing remote access points for use in a network: A remote access point contains identity information established during manufacturing; this identity information may be in the nature of a digital
certificate which can be used to establish a secure connection between networked entities. After the remote access point is provisioned to communicate securely to a controller using its TCP /
IP address provided by a user, the remote access point is put into an un-authorized state by the controller pending further
authorization. The user is presented with a secure
captive portal page authenticating the end-user. This
authorization may be through entering a user name and
password, through presenting a
certificate, through two-factor methods, or other methods known to the art. User's
authentication credentials are verified by the controller. Optionally this
verification can be performed using a per-user
certificate. After the remote access point has been authorized, the controller marks it verified as a fully functional node, and saves this state. The user performing the
authorization is associated with the remote access point, and may be used to monitor the usage and potentially revoke the authorization. The remote access point is provisioned with the current provisioning parameters for the remote access point as configured by the IT administrator for the
end user, so that each remote access point can have unique per-user configuration applied.