Method and apparatus for diagnosing a network
First Claim
1. A method comprising connecting a diagnosis computer to a network, first ascertaining, from one or more known sources on said network, an existence of each of a plurality of user computers within said network and ascertaining a configuration of each of said plurality of user computers, either from said one or more known sources, or from other sources.
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Accused Products
Abstract
This invention allows a system to connect to a user'"'"'s network and query one or more sources in order to access the identity and state of configuration of the computers connected thereto. In a preferred embodiment, the sources are tried in an order to provide the most usable information with the least use of bandwidth and processing power. One example tries the sources in the following order: 1. the active directory, 2. the domain controllers, 2. a range of IP addresses and 4. a specified input file. The methodology allows a service provider to efficiently and automatically assess the state of the entire network, for example, when a new customer subscribes to the service.
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Citations
14 Claims
- 1. A method comprising connecting a diagnosis computer to a network, first ascertaining, from one or more known sources on said network, an existence of each of a plurality of user computers within said network and ascertaining a configuration of each of said plurality of user computers, either from said one or more known sources, or from other sources.
- 2. The method of claim one wherein said first ascertaining includes checking plural sources sequentially until a source is found containing information indicative of said configuration of each of said user computers.
- 10. Apparatus comprising a diagnosis computer, a network, a plurality of user computers, first software within said diagnosis computer, second software within one or more of said user computers, and means for polling the user computers by the diagnosis computer in order to ascertain the version and type of prescribed software within said user computers.
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13. A method of verifying that a plurality of user computers have all been properly configured comprising the steps of inventorying all such computers, sequentially signaling each such computer over a network, in response to said signaling, receiving a message indicative of configuration parameters of said user computers in the network, and storing information indicative of any user computers from which appropriate configuration parameters have not been received.
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14. The method of claim 14 wherein the message received from said user computers includes information indicative of an amount of memory and a version and type of either operating system or virus protection software.
Specification