COMPUTER COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATION VIA PUBLIC NETWORKS

• US 20140337962A1
• Filed: 07/30/2014
• Published: 11/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HOB GmbH & Co. KG
• Original Assignee: HOB GmbH & Co. KG
• Inventors: BRANDSTATTER, Klaus
• Granted Patent: US 9,288,188 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/166 at the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A computer communication system including a client computer with an installed virtual private network (VPN) client and located in a public network, a server computer located in a corporate network, a web server remote from the client computer, a gateway computer located in the corporate network, and a VPN server computer located in the corporate network. The computer communication system is adapted to run following steps of providing a safe VPN communication connection between the client and the server computers: the client computer, using a WEB browser, downloads an application from the VPN server computer, and the downloaded application automatically configures the VPN client installed on the client computer and establishes a tunnelled connection from the client computer to the corporate network. All packets generated by the installed VPN client are forwarded through the tunnelled connection via the gateway computer to the VPN server in the corporate network.

Claims

1. A computer communication system, comprising:

a client computer running an operating system with an integrated PPP daemon as virtual private network (VPN) client and located in a public network;

at least one server computer located in a corporate network;

a web server remote from said client computer;

a SSL or IPSec gateway computer located in said corporate network, said SSL or IPSec gateway comprising a packet filter configured to limit access to and from the client computer to resources in the corporate network; and

a VPN server computer located in said corporate network,

wherein the computer communication system is configured to provide a safe VPN communication connection between said client and at least one of said server computers,

wherein said client computer, using a WEB browser, downloads a configuration file having parameters for configuring the built-in VPN client and an executable application that is stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to be run on the client computer, from said web server over the Internet, the executable program/applet type application being executable within the client computer'"'"'s WEB browser,

wherein said downloaded executable application is programmed to perform the following functions;

automatically configuring the PPP daemon that is used as the VPN client of the operating system installed on said client computer,

establishing an SSL or IPSec encrypted tunnel connection from said client computer to said SSL or IPSec gateway computer which is part of said corporate network, and

obtaining PPP packets containing payload data of applications running locally on the client computer using the PPP daemon,

wherein all the PPP packets containing the payload data generated by the PPP daemon are encrypted at the client computer by the downloaded application and sent through said tunnel connection to the SSL or IPSec gateway computer and are further forwarded via the SSL or IPSec gateway computer to the VPN server in said corporate network, in order to set a fully transparent VPN tunnel between the client computer and the corporate network.

2. A computer communication system according to claim 1, wherein the SSL or IPSec encrypted tunnel connection between the client computer and the SSL or IPSec gateway computer is secured by the use of a SSL or IPSec encryption protocol.

3. A computer communication system according to claim 1, wherein at the client computer a process is started by a downloaded applet type application, which causes the client computer to establish said SSL or IPSec encrypted tunnel connection.

4. A computer communication system according to claim 1, wherein the downloaded applet type application contains shared libraries that run the commands “

fork( )” and

“

execv( )”

to start the PPP daemon that is integrated into the operating system.

5. A computer communication system according to claim 1, wherein the downloaded application communicates with the PPP daemon that is integral to the operating system, using Pty-pseudo terminal and redirects the packets into said SSL or IPSec encrypted tunnel connection.