Network access point detection and use

1. A method for execution by a client device of identifying a status of a wireless network, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a beacon message from at least one access point of a wireless network, the beacon message including information identifying the access point;

attempting, using at least one predefined operation, to communicate with the access point;

determining a usability status based on a response received from the access point to the at least one predefined operation; and

storing the determined usability status in a cache, the usability status being associated with a unique identifier of the access point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the usability status comprises information identifying the usability of the access point as “good”, “bad” or “unknown”.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one predefined operation is defined in configuration information stored by the client device.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the configuration information comprises one or more profiles, each profile corresponding to at least one wireless network.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the at least one predefined operation is identified using a profile corresponding to an identifier of the wireless network identified in the beacon message.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the profile corresponding to the wireless network identifies one or more of: a probe, connect, disconnect and status check operations.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the configuration information comprises at least one network list that identifies multiple networks, the network list corresponding to one of the profiles such that the one profile is used for each of the networks in the network lists.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the usability status comprises information identifying a last connection attempt, and an outcome of the last connection attempt.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the usability status comprises information identifying a number of good connections and a number of bad connections.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting a subsequent beacon message, the subsequent beacon message identifying an access point; and

consulting the cache to determine a usability status corresponding to the access point identifier identified in the subsequent beacon message.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

attempting, using the at least one predefined operation, to communicate with the access point identified in the subsequent beacon message in a case that a usability status corresponding to the access point identified in the subsequent beacon message is absent in the cache;

determining a usability status of the wireless access point identified in the subsequent beacon message based on a response received from the at least one predefined operation; and

storing the determined usability status in a cache, the usability status being associated with a unique identifier of the access point identified in the subsequent beacon message.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

determining that the access point identified in the subsequent beacon message corresponds to the access point identifier stored in the cache; and

using the usability status stored in the cache to determine whether to connect to the wireless network via the identified access point.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client comprises an operating software platform, and wherein configuration information is stored on the client which comprises multiple predefined operations, each of which is written in an interpretable programming language which can be interpreted using the client's operating software platform, the method further comprising:

receiving updated configuration information comprising an update to one of the multiple predefined operations in the stored configuration information;

updating the configuration information to include the update, so as to control behavior of the client device without changing the operating software platform.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one predefined operation is contained in a script.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the script comprises multiple predefined operations.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein configuration information stored on the client comprises multiple scripts, and wherein each of scripts comprises one more predefined operations.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the configuration information comprises multiple profiles, at least one can be mapped to the access point identified by the beacon message, the method further comprising:

using the information identifying the wireless network in the beacon message to identify a profile contained in the configuration information;

identifying a script based on the identified profile; and

identifying the at least one predefined operation based on the identified script and profile.

18. A method for execution by a client device of identifying a status of a wireless network, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a beacon message from at least one access point of a wireless network, the beacon message including information identifying the access point;

attempting, using at least one predefined operation, to communicate with another access point, which is other than an access point for which a beacon message is detected in the detecting step;

determining a usability status based on a response received from the other access point to the at least one predefined operation; and

storing the determined usability status in a cache, the usability status being associated with a unique identifier of the other access point.

19. The method of claim 3 , wherein the configuration information comprises one or more profiles, each profile corresponding to a plurality of wireless networks.