Localization of Clients and Servers

• US 20070280229A1
• Filed: 08/14/2007
• Published: 12/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kenney, William
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,570 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/073 in a memory management context, e.g. virtual memory or cache management memory management G06F12/00; testing of static memory units G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/06 Message adaptation to terminal or network requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A data transfer method includes receiving terminal server identification data at a host system from a terminal server, querying a database to obtain localized information service data associated with the terminal server identification data, and sending the localized information service data from the host system to the terminal server. A host system providing localized information system data includes a database system, a network interface, and a processor. The database system includes records to associate terminal server identification data with information service data. The interface couples the host system to a communications link over which the host system can exchange data with a terminal server. The processor is coupled to the interface and to the database and is configured to receive terminal server identification data from the data interface, to query the database for localized information service data associated with the terminal server identification data, and to send the localized information service data obtained by the query to the data interface for transmission to the terminal server.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A method for data transfer between a host system, a database, a client computer, and a terminal server, the method comprising:

receiving, at a host system, a terminal server identifier of a terminal server, from the terminal server;

determining a geographic location of the terminal server;

querying a database to identify geographic location specific service data associated with the geographic location of the terminal server; and

automatically sending the geographic location specific service data associated with the geographic location of the terminal server from the host system to a client computer.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the database includes a first record that associates the terminal server identifier with the geographic location, and querying the database includes determining the geographic location based on the terminal server identifier from the first record.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the database further includes a record that associates the geographic location with service data that is specific to the geographic location, and querying the database further comprises determining the geographic location specific service data based on the determined geographic location.

25. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

establishing a data connection between the terminal server and the client computer;

receiving the geographic location specific service data at the terminal server; and

forwarding the geographic location specific service data from the terminal server to the client computer.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein establishing a data connection is carried out prior to receiving the terminal server identifier.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein establishing a data connection further comprises receiving a dial-up modem connection from a client computer.

28. The method of claim 22 wherein the terminal server identifier comprises a network address associated with the terminal server.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein receiving the terminal server identifier further comprises receiving a data packet from the terminal server, the data packet including the terminal server network address.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the data packet includes request data received at the terminal server from the client computer, the request data identifying an information service.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein querying the database further comprises querying based on the terminal server identifier and the request data;

and the geographic location specific service data identified by the query of the database is associated with both the terminal server identifier and with the service identified by the request data.

33. A host system comprising:

a database including a record associating a terminal server identifier with service data specific to a geographic location;

a data interface configured to exchange data with a terminal server disposed in a geographic location via a communications link; and

a processor configured to;

receive the terminal server identifier of the terminal server via the data interface,

determine the geographic location of the terminal server,

query the database to identify geographic location specific service data associated with the geographic location of the terminal server, and

automatically send the geographic location specific service data associated with the geographic location of the terminal server to a client computer via the data interface.

34. The host system of claim 33 wherein:

the terminal server identifier comprises a network address associated with the terminal server; and

the interface includes packet processing circuitry to receive a data packet from the terminal server and extract the terminal server identifier from a header region of the data packet.

35. The host system of claim 34 wherein the network address comprises an internet protocol address.

36. The host system of claim 33 wherein the database includes a disk storage medium comprising a plurality of records associating terminal server identifiers with geographic locations and a plurality of records associating geographic locations with service data.

37. The host system of claim 34 further comprising a software storage media coupled to the processor, the media storing instructions to configure the processor to query the database, instructions to retrieve geographic locations associated with terminal server identifiers and instructions to query the database to retrieve service data associated with geographic locations.

38. A computer-readable medium having stored therein a computer program comprising computer instructions to be executed by a computer for causing the computer to:

receive a terminal server identifier of the terminal server, from the terminal server;

determine a geographic location of the terminal server;

query a database to identify geographic location specific service data associated with the geographic location of the terminal server; and

automatically send the geographic location specific service data associated with the geographic location of the terminal server to a client computer.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 38 wherein the instructions to query the database comprise instructions to query the database to determine the geographic location based on the received terminal server identifier.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 38 wherein the terminal server identifier comprises a network address associated with the terminal server.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 38 wherein the instructions to receive the terminal server identifier comprises instructions to receive a data packet from the terminal server, the data packet including a terminal server network address.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 41 wherein the data packet further comprises request data received at the terminal server from a client computer, the request data identifying a service.

43. The computer-readable medium of claim 42 wherein:

the instructions to query the database comprise instructions to query the database based on the terminal server identifier and the request data; and

the geographic location specific service data identified by the query is associated with both the terminal server identifier and with the service identified by the request data.

44. A method for data transfer between a host system, a database, a client computer, and a terminal server, the method comprising:

receiving, at a host system, a terminal server identifier of the terminal server, from the terminal server;

determining, at the host system, a geographic location of the terminal server using the terminal server identifier;

maintaining, at the host system, the geographic location specific service data;

querying, at the host system, a database to identify the geographic location specific service data associated with the geographic location of the terminal server; and

automatically sending the geographic location specific service data associated with the geographic location of the terminal server from the host system to a client computer,

wherein the host system is a single source for accessing the geographic location of the terminal server, maintaining the geographic location specific service data, and sending the geographic location specific service data to the terminal server.

45. The method as in claim 44 further comprising:

establishing a data connection between the terminal server and the client computer;

receiving the geographic location specific data at the terminal server; and

forwarding the geographic location specific service data from the terminal server to the client computer.

46. The method as in claim 44 wherein the terminal server identifier includes a network address associated with the terminal server.