ASSOCIATING MULTIPLE DEVICES WITH REMOTE COMPUTERS

• US 20080082639A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: KING, James M., HOCHMUTH, Roland M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,941,508 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities

Abstract

A method comprises determining whether settings associated with a plurality of devices coupled to a client computer are provided in the client computer. The client computer is adapted to be coupled to a plurality of remote computer. If the settings are provided in the client computer, the method further comprises determining to which of the remote computers each device is to be associated, and operatively associating each device to the particular remote computer to which that device is determined to be associated. As a result, multiple devices can be concurrently associated with remote computers.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining whether settings associated with a plurality of devices coupled to a client computer are provided in said client computer, said client computer adapted to be coupled to a plurality of remote computers; and

if said settings are provided in said client computer, determining to which of the remote computers each device is to be associated, and operatively associating each device to the particular remote computer to which that device is determined to be associated, thereby having multiple devices concurrently associated with remote computers.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising prompting a user to specify settings for each device if settings are not otherwise provided in said client computer for that device.

3. The method of claim 2 prompting the user to specify whether to save said specified settings.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining whether a remote computer has been pre-designated for which a device is to be associated.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising prompting a user to select a remote computer to be associated with a particular device.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining, for a particular device, whether that device is to be associated with a particular remote computer without user intervention.

7. The method of claim 1 further prompting a user to authorize a device to be associated with a particular remote computer.

8. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a device manager executable on said processor, said device manager detects each of a plurality of devices being coupled to said system and determines, for each such device, the particular remote computer from among a plurality of remote computers that such device is to be operatively associated.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said device comprises a universal serial bus (USB) device.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein said device manager determines to which of the plurality of remote computers each such device is to be operatively associated based on settings stored in said system.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein said settings for a given device comprise at least one setting selected from a group consisting of status, whether the given device is to be statically associated with a particular remote computer or whether a user is to be prompted to cause the given device to be associated with the remote computer, an identity of a remote computer to be associated with the given device, whether the given device is to be automatically associated with a remote computer, and an identity of the given device.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein said device manager prompts a user to specify device settings for a given device if settings for the given device are not otherwise stored in said system.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein said device manager causes a given device to be operatively associated with the particular remote computer.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein, upon a given device being coupled to said system, said device manager associates the given device with the particular remote computer without a prompt from a user.

15. The system of claim 8 wherein, upon a given device being coupled to said system, said device manager prompts a user to authorize the given device to be associated with the particular remote computer.

16. A computer-readable medium containing software that, when executed by a processor in a client computer, causes the processor to:

detect that each of a plurality of devices are coupled to the client computer, said client computer adapted to be coupled to a plurality of remote computer;

determine whether settings associated with each device are provided in said client computer; and

if said settings are provided in said client computer for a given device, determine to which of the remote computers said device is to be associated and operatively associate the device to the particular remote computer to which the device is determined to be associated.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein, for a given device, said software also causes said processor to determine whether a remote computer has been pre-designated for which the given device is to be associated.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein, for a given device, said software also causes the processor to determine whether the given device is to be automatically associated with the particular remote computer.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, for a given device, wherein said software also causes the processor to determine whether a user is to select whether the given device is to be associated with the particular remote computer.

20. The computer-readable medium 16 wherein, for a given device, said software causes the processor to determine to which of the remote computers the given device is to be associated by prompting a user to specify one of a plurality of remote computers.