Method for locating and recovering devices which are connected to the internet or to an internet-connected network

• US 20030005092A1
• Filed: 06/28/2001
• Published: 01/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Nelson, Dean S., Wiegley, Douglas J., Clough, James
• Application Number:
  US09/896,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20030005092A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/88 Detecting or preventing theft or loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

A method for locating and recovering network-connected devices includes the steps of: employing one or more discovery techniques to discover devices on the Internet or on an Internet-connected computer network; acquiring identifiers of discovered devices; storing information pertaining to the discovered devices in a discovery database; accessing a database of information pertaining to devices of interest; comparing the identifiers to the database of information to identify devices of interest among the discovered devices; tracing network addresses of the identified devices of interest; and providing information pertaining to the identified devices of interest and/or the discovered devices to a party of interest. In a preferred embodiment, the network addresses of the identified devices of interest are traced through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The party of interest is, for example, a law enforcement agency or a purchaser of market research data.

Claims

1. A method for locating and recovering devices which are connected to the Internet or to an Internet-connected computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

employing one or more discovery techniques to discover devices on the Internet or on an Internet-connected computer network;

acquiring identifiers of discovered devices;

storing information pertaining to the discovered devices in a discovery database;

accessing a database of information pertaining to devices of interest;

comparing the identifiers to the database of information to identify devices of interest among the discovered devices;

tracing network addresses of the identified devices of interest; and

providing information pertaining to the identified devices of interest and/or the discovered devices to a party of interest.

2. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 1, wherein the one or more discovery techniques comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) range walk discovery technique which includes the steps of:

sending request packets to a range of IP addresses; and

receiving responses from discovered devices.

3. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 2, wherein the request packets include Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) request packets.

4. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 2, wherein the range of IP addresses includes all possible addresses within that range.

5. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 1, wherein the one or more discovery techniques comprises an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table walk discovery technique which includes the steps of:

(a) communicating with a group of known devices to obtain IP and hardware addresses of other devices which have communicated with the group of know devices to discover additional groups of devices; and

(b) repeating step (a) for the additional groups of devices.

6. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 5, wherein the IP and hardware addresses are obtained from an ARP table.

7. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 5, wherein step (b) is repeated recursively.

8. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 1, wherein the devices of interest comprise stolen or missing devices.

9. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 1, wherein the network addresses of the identified devices of interest are traced through an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

10. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 1, wherein the party of interest is a law enforcement agency.

11. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 1, wherein the party of interest is a purchaser of market research data.

13. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 12, wherein the devices of interest comprise stolen or missing devices.

14. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

tracing network addresses of the identified devices of interest.

15. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

providing information pertaining to the identified devices of interest and/or the discovered devices to a party of interest.

17. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 16, wherein addresses of the network queries are ordered to avoid overloading any individual remote network.

18. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 16, wherein the network queries are made in batches.

19. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 18, wherein the queries in each batch include queries made to a plurality of different networks.

20. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

tracing the network addresses of the identified devices of interest.

21. The method for locating and recovering devices of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

providing information pertaining to the identified devices of interest and/or the discovered devices to a party of interest.

12. A method for locating and recovering devices which are connected to the Internet or to an Internet-connected computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

collecting device information pertaining to a group or groups of devices;

moving selected portions of the device information as needed to a database of information pertaining to devices of interest;

employing a discovery server to discover devices on the Internet or on an Internet-connected computer network;

acquiring identifiers of discovered devices;

storing information pertaining to the discovered devices in a discovery database;

accessing the database of information pertaining to devices of interest; and

comparing the identifiers to the database of information to identify devices of interest among the discovered devices.

16. A method for locating and recovering devices which are connected to the Internet or to an Internet-connected computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

employing one or more discovery techniques to discover devices on the Internet or on an Internet-connected computer network, the one or more discovery techniques comprising a range walk discovery technique which includes the steps of

distributing network queries over a plurality of sub-networks at the same time, and

receiving responses from discovered devices;

acquiring network addresses and identifiers of discovered devices;

storing information pertaining to the discovered devices in a discovery database;

accessing a database of information pertaining to devices of interest; and

comparing the identifiers to the database of information to identify devices of interest among the discovered devices.