on the network protocols that are used as well as the network components that are implemented of course those of skill in the art will appreciate that for example a registration request may take a variety of different forms depending on those parameters any such form is not intended however to limit the invention here as noted above the new network device such as new network device 102 requires registration on the network as well as selected administrative processing preferably the registration process is run and completed before the administrative processing is accomplished in this regard referring now to fig4 a method 400 for registration layer processing is illustrated in this method registration layer processing is initiated at 402 an address of another node in the network is requested by the new network device at 404 it should be understood however that this network address must be known by the new network device prior to its incorporation into the network it will typically be provided possibly with other addresses to the new network device upon installation or initial configuration of the device prior to installation notably the network address may be the address of any node on the network not just administrative nodes the new network device then sends a request to the other network node e g an existing network device such as network device 104 for registration at 406 a counter indicating the number of attempts may also be incremented the new network device then waits for a response to be received at 408 if no response is received in one form of the invention the new network device determines whether a maximum number of attempts to register has been exceeded based on for example the counter noted at 410.