REMOTE COMPUTER MANAGEMENT USING NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOL THAT ENABLES COMMUNICATION THROUGH A FIREWALL AND/OR GATEWAY

• US 20120198044A1
• Filed: 04/04/2012
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Datto LLC
• Original Assignee: Kaseya International Limited (Kaseya Limited)
• Inventors: Sutherland, Mark J., Wong, Paul Y.
• Granted Patent: US 8,645,520 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The invention facilitates remote management of a computer via a network. Remote computer management in which communication between a managed computer and a remote computer management server is initiated by the managed computer is implemented so that the communication is formatted in accordance with a network communications protocol that can be used to format communication that is allowed to pass through a firewall and/or gateway that mediates communication with the managed computer.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

initiating, from a managed computer, communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server, wherein the communication is formatted to allow pass through to at least one of a firewall or a gateway that mediates communication with the managed computer by performing a succession of formatting changes to the communication in accordance with each of a plurality of different network communications protocols until one protocol version of the initial communication is allowed to pass through the at least one firewall or gateway of the managed computer, the network communications protocol allowed to pass being further used to format subsequent communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server during an ensuing communication session; and

receiving a response from the remote computer management server, wherein the response indicates if at least one operation is performed on at least one of the managed computer itself and a device attached to the managed computer.

2. The computer network as in claim 1, wherein the network communications protocol is an HTTP protocol.

3. The computer network as in claim 1, wherein the network communications protocol is an HTTPS protocol.

4. The computer network as in claim 1, wherein the network communications protocol is an FTP protocol.

5. The computer network as in claim 1, wherein the network communications protocol is a TCP/IP protocol.

6. The computer network as in claim 1, wherein the network is the Internet.

7. The computer network as in claim 1, further comprising instructions for executing on a recurring basis the instructions for initiating communication from the managed computer.

10. The computer network as in claim 1, further comprising instructions for determining, prior to initiating communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server, whether a connection is open to enable communication from the managed computer to the network, wherein, if not, the instructions for initiating communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server do not operate to initiate communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server.

11. The computer network as in claim 1, further comprising instructions for routing all communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server through a single network communications port that is allowed by the at least one of the firewall and the gateway of the managed computer for other network communication.

12. The computer network as in claim 1, further comprising instructions and/or data for authenticating the managed computer to the remote computer management server.

13. The computer network as in claim 1, further comprising instructions for encrypting communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server.

8. The computer network as in claim 8, further comprising instructions for executing at a regular interval the instructions and/or data for initiating communication from the managed computer.

9. The computer network as in claim 9, wherein the regular interval is one minute or less than one minute.

14. The computer network as in claim 14, wherein the instructions and/or data for encrypting communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server further comprise instructions for generating a new encryption key each time that the managed computer initiates communication with the remote computer management server.

15. The computer as in claim 15, wherein the instructions and/or data for encrypting communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server further comprise instructions for successively comparing different combinations of a specified number of the most recent encryption keys stored by the managed computer and a specified number of the most recent encryption keys stored by the remote computer management server.

16. A method, comprising:

initiating, from a managed computer, communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server, the initiating comprising querying, if the remote computer management server has a management action to be performed on the managed computer, wherein the communication is formatted in accordance with a network communications protocol that can be used to format communication that is allowed to pass through at least one of a firewall and a gateway that mediates communication with the managed computer by performing a succession of formatting changes to the communication in accordance with each of a plurality of different network communications protocols until one protocol version of the initial communication is allowed to pass through the at least one firewall or gateway of the managed computer, the network communications protocol allowed to pass being further used to format subsequent communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server during an ensuing communication session; and

receiving a response from the remote computer management server, wherein the response indicates if at least one operation is performed on at least one of the managed computer itself and a device attached to the managed computer.

17. A system, comprising:

a managed computer that initiates communication with a remote computer management server, wherein the communication is formatted in accordance with a network communications protocol that can be used to format communication that is allowed to pass through at least one of a firewall or a gateway that mediates communication with the managed computer by performing a succession of formatting changes to the communication in accordance with each of a plurality of different network communications protocols until one protocol version of the initial communication is allowed to pass through the at least one firewall or gateway of the managed computer, the network communications protocol allowed to pass being further used to format subsequent communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server during an ensuing communication session; and

the remote computer management server that sends a response from the remote computer management server, wherein the response indicates if at least one operation is performed on at least one of the managed computer itself and a device attached to the managed computer.