NETWORK DEVICE INSTALLATION

• US 20090319649A1
• Filed: 06/19/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Larsen, Brian, Roberts, David, Cunningham, Aaron
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,313 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/222
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0846 based on copy from other elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0879 Manual configuration through operator

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a system and method of processing device settings of a device. In a particular embodiment, the method includes requesting the device to provide the device settings. The device settings include wide area network (WAN) and local area network (LAN) network settings. The method further includes storing the device settings in a device independent format. After the device settings have been stored in the device independent format, the device settings may be subsequently retrieved and used for replacement of the network device in a computer network. In a particular embodiment, the device settings are stored in the device independent format in a second device, such as at a server or a personal computer.

Claims

1. A method of processing device settings of a device, the method comprising:

requesting the device to provide the device settings, the device settings including wide area network (WAN) and local area network (LAN) network settings; and

storing the device settings in a device independent format.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising after storing the device settings in the device independent format, identifying a replacement device for replacement of the device in a network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the device settings are stored in a second device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second device is a server or a personal computer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the device is coupled to a computer network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the device settings include static data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the device independent format is a universal device configuration (UDC) format.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising displaying images to guide a user through a process of making physical connections of the second device to a computer network, importing the device settings in the device independent format to the second device, updating the second device with available firmware or software, configuring additional settings for the second device, and adding the second device to the computer network.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising provisioning the second device and registering the second device prior to adding the second device to the computer network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the device settings include device specific information including audio codecs, video codecs, frame rates, resolution information, and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) support information.

11. A network device replacement method comprising:

identifying a replacement device;

querying the replacement device to determine whether the replacement device is compatible with configuration data in a device independent format; and

communicating configuration data in the device independent format to the replacement device after determining that the replacement device is compatible with receipt of data in the device independent format.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising using a device driver or an alternate protocol to translate or transfer data onto the replacement device after determining that the replacement device is not compatible with the configuration data in the device independent format.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration data in the device independent format includes universal device configuration data retrieved from a device to be replaced by the replacement device in a network and wherein the configuration data includes wide area network data and local area network data.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the replacement device is a replacement for an internet gateway device that was previously installed in a computer network.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration data in the device independent format includes universal device configuration data retrieved from a device to be replaced by the replacement device in a network and wherein the universal device configuration data is retrieved by use of a HTML driver to download a configuration file from a user interface of the device to be replaced and wherein a web-crawler application is executed to automatically access the web user interface to automatically create the HTML driver.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration data in the device independent format includes universal device configuration data retrieved from a device to be replaced by the replacement device in a network and wherein the universal device configuration data is retrieved by use of a HTML driver that automatically logs in to a web based user interface to collect device settings from the device to be replaced.

17. A computer readable media including a set of computer program instructions that when executed cause a processor to:

request a network device to provide device settings, the device settings including wide area network (WAN) and local area network (LAN) network settings;

store the device settings in a device independent format; and

identify a replacement device for replacement of the network device in a computer network.

18. The computer readable media of claim 17, further comprising instructions to cause the processor to display images to guide a user through a process of making physical connections of the replacement device to the computer network, import the device settings in the device independent format to the replacement device, update the replacement device with available firmware or software, configure additional settings for the replacement device, and add the replacement device to the computer network as a replacement of the network device.

19. The computer readable media of claim 18, further comprising instructions to cause the processor to provision the replacement device and to register the replacement device prior to adding the replacement device to the computer network.

20. The computer readable media of claim 19, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the processor to:

identify the replacement device;

query the replacement device to determine whether the replacement device is compatible with configuration data in the device independent format; and

transfer configuration data in the device independent format to the replacement device when the replacement device is compatible with receipt of data in the device independent format.