Gateway-assisted file transfer

• US 20130238749A1
• Filed: 01/28/2013
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GOTO Group Incorporated (LogMeIn, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LogMeIn, Inc.
• Inventors: Anka, Marton B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,168 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• 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 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

A file transfer application maintains a secure connection over the Internet with a file transfer gateway. A user selects a file and the file transfer application requests a unique ticket from the gateway. The ticket is stored in both the gateway and the file transfer application. Next, the ticket is then encoded in a URL that can be sent to potential recipients of the file via conventional methods. Upon entering the URL into a web browser, the recipient will navigate to the file transfer gateway. The gateway decodes the URL to recover the ticket and looks up the ticket in the database to determine the associated application instance and file description. The gateway will then request the application instance to start encrypting and streaming the contents of the file identified by the ticket to the gateway, which then retransmits the encrypted stream to the recipient'"'"'s web browser.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer program product comprising computer program instructions executed in association with a gateway system to control transfer of a file from a first computer to a second computer, each of the first and second computers being distinct from the gateway system, the first computer having a file transfer application instance, the computer program instructions comprising:

program instructions adapted to receive a first request from the first computer, the request associated with a file to be transferred from the first computer to the second computer;

program instructions responsive to the first request and adapted to associate a random character string with an identifier and data associated with the file, the identifier being associated with the file transfer application;

program instructions adapted to receive of a second request from the second computer, the request associated with a URL that encodes at least the random character string, and to obtain the random character string and thereby identify the file and the file transfer application instance; and

program instructions responsive to the second request and adapted to instruct the file transfer application to enable a transfer of the file from the first computer to the second computer.

2. The computer program product as described in claim 1 further including program instructions to establish and maintain a connection to the first computer.

3. The computer program product as described in claim 2 further including program instructions adapted to receive the file over the connection, and to forward the file to the second computer.

4. The computer program product as described in claim 2 wherein the connection is a secure connection.

5. The computer program product as described in claim 1 wherein the URL also encodes a second URL associated with a location of the gateway system.