A request from a user of a computer device to gain access to a communication network is routed to a captive web portal running on a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server where the device has a media access control (MAC) address that is not known to the DHCP server, rather than being routed to a DNS server that provides domain name resolution or network resources. The captive web portal prompts a user of the computer device to provide authentication information. If the user is authenticated, the DHCP server provides an actual internet protocol (IP) address that uniquely identifies the computer device on a network supporting TCP/IP and provides access to network resources.