of the portal one such device parameter can include the serial number of the network device which can be recognized by the host computing device 340 as authentic any number of device parameters can be transmitted by the rfid tag to the reader to indicate that the network device is authentic or should otherwise be allowed to access the network the rfid tag can be secured to a network device at any time such as when the network device is shipped from a supplier to an end user in one example the reader 330 can be a modem type device that is able to communicate over the network to the host computing device 340 the embodiments described herein can include the use of a special purpose or general purpose computer including various computer hardware or software modules as discussed in greater detail below embodiments within the scope of the present invention also include computer readable media for carrying or having computer executable instructions or data structures stored thereon such computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer by way of example and not limitation such computer readable media can comprise ram rom eeprom cd rom or other optical disk storage magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer executable instructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer when information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection either hardwired wireless or a combination of hardwired or wireless to a computer the computer properly views the connection as a computer readable.