Home gateway server appliance

• US 6,930,598 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2002
• Issued: 08/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Eugene S. Weiss
• Original Assignee: Eugene S. Weiss
• Inventors: Weiss, Eugene S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Crosland, Donnie L.
• Application Number:
  US10/145,702
• Publication Number:
  US 20030217110A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,188 Days
• Field of Search: 340/531, 340/539.1, 340/539.18, 340/500, 340/3.43, 340/7.29, 340/815.4, 340/815.45, 34031001-31008, 340/593.1, 709/224, 709/218, 709/223, 370/241, 370/242, 370/254, 370/392, 370/908, 370/910
• US Class Current: 340/531
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2871 Implementation details of single intermediate entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 370/908 Local area network

Abstract

A home gateway server appliance allows home computers and other networked electronic devices to communicate with one another, operate without direct interaction with external networks, provide a variety of network services to computers and other devices both within the home and, at the owner'"'"'s discretion, connected through the Internet, and provide a mechanism whereby members of the household may be informed of certain network related events without having to use their home computer or other client device.

Claims

1. A home gateway server appliance integrating a plurality of functionalities linking a plurality of networked devices with access to a global communication network without requiring direct access thereto, comprising:

a communication hub including a first communication member interfacing a global communication network and a second communication member providing communication with various client devices that might be connected to the home gateway server appliance;

a network server; and

an audio alarm notifying user of a communication or network event

wherein the communication hub, network server and audio alarm are maintained within a single housing.

2. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the appliance is upgradeable with new software offering different functionalities.

3. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the first communication member is an Ethernet controller chip.

4. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the first communication member is a cable modem chip.

5. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the first communication member is a DSL modem chip.

6. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the second communication member is an Ethernet switch chip.

7. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the alarm further includes a visual alarm.

8. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein a supplemental alarm is delivered by way of a client device networked to the home getaway server appliance.

9. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, further including means for the switching on of a client device upon the occurrence of an alarm event.

10. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, further including means for delivering a supplemental alarm by way of a telephone call.

11. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the network server operates under an open source code operating system.

12. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the network server is an x86 compatible processor.

13. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the network server provides functionalities chosen from the group consisting of software package manager, standard web server, LAN routing, SNMP, LAN e-mail management, mail fetching, file and printer sharing, SSH, FTP server, SSL capabilities, instant messaging, setting up VPN, Perl scripting and security monitoring.

14. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, further including a remote user interface.

15. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 14, wherein the user interface is a web browser operating on a home computer connected to the home gateway server appliance.

16. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, further including a memory coupled to the network server.

17. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, further including a mass storage device coupled to the network server.

18. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the communication hub includes an input for connection to a standard telephone line.

19. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the communication hub includes an input for connection via an IEEE 1394 interface.

20. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, further including a USB host controller chip.

21. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the home gateway server appliance is able to control computer peripherals.

22. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the home gateway server appliance is able to share computer peripherals among several computers.

23. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the communication hub employs short-range wireless technology.

24. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein the communication hub includes means for connection to wireless broadband global communication network services.

25. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein an audio device plays spoken messages, either from pre-recorded sound files or computer generated speech.

26. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, further including means for functioning as a telephone answering machine.

27. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, further including means for permitting the sending and receiving of facsimile messages.

28. The home gateway server appliance according to claim 1, wherein an alarm is activated upon the occurrence of an event chosen from the group consisting of an Internet telephony connection attempt, receipt of an Internet instant messaging request and the receipt of an e-mail message from a particular sender.