System and method for remotely generating, assigning and updating network adapter card in a computing system

• US 6,363,423 B1
• Filed: 04/26/1999
• Issued: 03/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: 3Com Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Puri, Vikas, Bartlett, Roderick J., Chiles, David C.
• Primary Examiner(s): WILEY, DAVID ARMAND
• Application Number:
  US09/299,484
• Time in Patent Office: 1,065 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/204, 709/221, 709/245, 709/224, 370/395, 370/410, 370/402, 340/10.1, 710/8, 713/2, 713/200
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/50 Address allocation

Abstract

A system and method for retrieving and assigning a unique media access control (MAC) address to a network adapter card in a computer system that uses the network adapter card to connect to a data network. The computer system includes a communications application for invoking a network connection to a remote server. The remote server includes a MAC address list that stores MAC addresses that have been assigned to network adapter cards according to serial numbers. The remote server includes a web page that requests the user to enter a serial number. The remote server uses the serial number to search for a MAC address in the MAC address list. When the remote server finds the serial number, it stores the corresponding MAC address in a file and sends the file name to the user. The user then requests the remote server to download the file by file name, or by FTP URL. The computer system receives the file and an update program reads the MAC address from the file and sends the MAC address to the network adapter card. The network adapter card then stores the MAC address in non-volatile memory.

Claims

1. A method for remotely updating a network adapter card installed in a computer system to include a media access control address, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing a connection between the computer system and a remote server;

receiving a request from the remote server for a serial number assigned to the network adapter card;

sending the serial number of the network adapter card to the remote server;

the remote server searching for the media access control address corresponding to the serial number of the network adapter card in a media access control address list;

sending the media access control address to the computer system; and

storing the media access control address in the network adapter card.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

the remote server storing the media access control address in an address file having a file name;

sending the file name to the computer system; and

the computer system requesting a download of the address file;

wherein the step of sending the media access control address to the computer system includes the step of downloading the address file to the computer system.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

before the step of establishing the connection to the remote server, determining whether the network adapter card includes the media access control address; and

continuing to the step of establishing the connection to the remote server when the network adapter card does not include the media access control address.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the steps of:

before the step of continuing to the step of establishing the connection to the remote server, determining whether the computer system includes the address file; and

reading the media access control address from the address file when the computer system includes the address file.

5. An improved network adapter card in a computer system for providing a network connection to a data network, the network adapter card comprising a non-volatile memory, the improvement comprising:

an address search program operable to determine whether the network adapter card includes a media access control address in the non-volatile memory;

a communications application to connect to a remote server having a media access control address list, the remote server being operable to retrieve the media access control address from the media access control address list and to send the media access control address to the computer system over the network connection, the communications application being operable to receive the media access control address; and

an address update program to store the media access control address in the non-volatile memory.

6. The improvement of claim 5 wherein the remote server creates an address file containing the media access control address, the improvement further comprising:

an address file program operable to determine if the computer system includes an address file in a data storage system, the address file including the media access control address; and

wherein the communications application receives and stores the address file from the remote server, the address update program being operable to read the media access control address from the address file and to store the media access control address in the non-volatile memory.

7. The improvement of claim 5 further comprising a user interface program that enables a user to cause the execution of the address search program.

8. The improvement of claim 7 wherein the user interface program enables the address update program.

9. The improvement of claim 7 wherein the user interface program includes a graphical user interface objects for causing the execution of the address search program.

10. The improvement of claim 9 wherein the user interface program includes a graphical user interface objects for causing the execution of the address update program.

11. The improvement of claim 5 wherein the communications application is a World-Wide Web browser.

12. The improvement of claim 5 wherein the communications application is a terminal emulation program.

13. A system for updating a network adapter card in a computer system to include a media access control address, the system comprising:

a communications application operable to issue commands to the adapter driver to establish a network connection over a data network to a remote server;

the remote server having a media access control address list the remote server being operable to retrieve the media access control address from the media access control address list and to send the media access control address to the computer system over the network connection;

an address search program in the computer system operable to determine whether the network adapter card includes a media access control address in the non-volatile memory; and

an address update program operable to receive the media access control address from the remote server and to store the media access control address in the non-volatile memory.

14. The system of claim 13 further comprising:

an address file created by the remote server, the remote server being operable to store the MAC address in the address file;

an address file program operable to determine if the computer system includes the address file in a data storage system; and

wherein the communications application receives and stores the address file from the remote server, the address update program being operable to read the media access control address from the address file and to store the media access control address in the non-volatile memory.

15. The system of claim 13 further comprising a user interface program that enables a user to cause the execution of the address search program.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the user interface program enables the address update program.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the user interface program includes a graphical user interface objects for causing the execution of the address search program.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the user interface program includes a graphical user interface objects for causing the execution of the address update program.

19. The system of claim 13 wherein the communications application is a World-Wide Web browser.

20. The system of claim 13 wherein the communications application is a terminal emulation program.

21. The system of claim 13 wherein the remote server is a World-Wide Web server that includes a hypertext transfer protocol connected to a Hypertext Meta-Language Web page.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the remote server includes a common gateway interface for searching the MAC address list for a MAC address.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the common gateway interface includes a PERL script.

24. The system of claim 14 wherein the remote server includes a file transport protocol server for creating the address file.