Methods and apparatuses for accessing, via a public network, a device connected to a privately addressed network are disclosed. One method comprises the steps of automatically assigning a globally unique name to the device, which resolves to a gateway of the privately addressed network, automatically associating the globally unique name with a private address of the device, and automatically routing communications comprising the globally unique name to the device based on the private address. The name and the address of the gateway may be registered with a Domain Name System (DNS) in response to a request received from the device. If a communication comprising the globally unique name is received for the device from another device via the Internet, a private address for the device dependent on the globally unique name may be automatically obtained for automatically routing the communication to the device.