Proximity warnings for remote services

• US 7,738,127 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2005
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Software, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Winkel, Jerry Curtis, Frost, Kenneth Allen
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Thierry L
• Application Number:
  US11/137,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20060268319A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,846 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.1, 358/1.5, 358/1.9, 358 111- 118
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/35 communicating wirelessly
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/608 Secure printing

Abstract

Techniques for issuing proximity warnings for services are provided. A first location associated with a requestor that makes a request to a remote service is determined. A second location associated with the remote service is resolved. The first and second locations are compared. In response to the compare, a decision is made as to whether a warning message is issued to the requestor or as to whether the request is passed through to the remote service for processing.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a machine-readable medium and to execute on a device, the method, comprising:

detecting a request for a remote service from a requestor;

resolving a first location of the requestor and a second location for the remote service;

comparing the first location to the second location; and

determining in response to the comparison whether to issue a warning to the requestor before the request is submitted to the remote service for processing, the requestor is a user and permitting the user to affirm the request for processing in view of the warning and giving control to the user as to whether to process the request, the comparison based on a threshold distance between the first and second location and the threshold distance is obtained based on a particular identity for the requestor, the threshold distance changes depending upon identities of requestors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein resolving further includes determining the first location of the requestor in response to an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the requestor.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein resolving further includes determining the second location of the remote service in response to a data store having location information associated with the remote service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein resolving further includes determining the second location of the remote service in response to an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the remote service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing further includes deciding whether the first location is in a same domain as the second location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing further includes deciding whether the first location is in a same subnet as the second location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining further includes acquiring at least one of the first location and the second location as geographic coordinate positions acquired from a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system.

8. A method implemented in a machine-readable medium and to execute on a device, the method, comprising:

detecting a print request for a networked printer over a network;

determining a first location of a requestor for the print request and a second location for the networked printer;

deciding whether the first location is within a threshold distance of the second location, and if not, issuing a warning message to the requestor before passing the print request to the network printer for servicing, and wherein the requestor is a user and when the warning message is issued, the user has control to affirm that the print request is still to be processed, the threshold distance determined based on an identity for the requestor, the threshold distance changes depending upon identities of requestors.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the device is as a print server and processing the method manages the print request on behalf of the networked printer and that acts as an intermediary between the requestor and the networked printer.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising, processing the method as a proxy service associated with at least one of the requestor and the network printer.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein deciding further includes acquiring the threshold distance from a policy manager.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein determining further includes resolving the first location in response to a recorded location of a wireless access point which transmits the request on behalf of the requestor to the networked printer.