Method for monitoring and providing information over a peer to peer network

• US 7,761,569 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2004
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kroll Information Assurance LLC
• Original Assignee: Tiversa, Inc. (Tiversa Holding Corp.)
• Inventors: Hopkins, Samuel P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Quang N.
• Application Number:
  US10/764,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20050163050A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,370 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/217, 709/219, 709/226, 709/232, 370/231, 370/254, 370/395, 370/397
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/107 with limitation or expansion of the discovery scope
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1093 Some peer nodes performing special functions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/145 avoiding end of session, e.g. keep-alive, heartbeats, resumption message or wake-up for inactive or interrupted session
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99956 File allocation

Abstract

The present invention relates to a pseudonode used for deployment on a peer to peer network which pseudonode comprises an IP address and client ID that is changeable upon the occurrence of a preselected event and includes a list containing at least one searchable data object. The pseudonode is programmed for monitoring the network to receive search requests therefrom and to compare each said received search with said list of data objects and to respond to such request. The invention also provides a method for monitoring search requests for selected objects by nodes on a peer to peer network. The method includes interposing the pseudonodes on the network in which it is configured to provide at least one IP address and optionally at least one client ID. The pseudonode has at least one stored object corresponding to a request object stored at said pseudonode; and monitors the network to detect requests matching at least one of the stored objects and acquires a unique ID generated by any network node requesting the object matching that stored object on the pseudonode and responding to substantially each node representing an acquired ID.

Claims

1. A method executed by a peer to peer network node, said method comprising the steps of:

connecting to a peer to peer network;

sending a request to a specific node on the peer to peer network to upload a file associated with a file index number starting at N, where N is a real number, to said peer to peer network node;

recording a specific file name that is sent corresponding to the file index number starting at N contained in a response from the specific node; and

automatically incrementing the file index number and repeating the request until such time as the specific node no longer responds;

wherein the request is a push request for an out of band direct connection over a transport network containing at least the following fields;

a client ID of the specific node, the file index number starting at N, Internet Protocol (IP) address of said peer to peer network node, and TCP/IP port number of said peer to peer network node; and

wherein the response from the specific node includes at least the following;

the client ID of the specific node, the file index number starting at N, and the specific file name corresponding to the file index number starting at N.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising determining the specific node thought to be providing terrorist information or information detrimental to national security.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising locating copyrighted or illegal information.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising building profiles of users and what they have downloaded.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising marketing products or services.

6. A method executed by a peer to peer network node, said method consisting of:

connecting to a peer to peer network;

sending requests to nodes on the peer to peer network associated with a list of client IDs that they upload a file associated with a file index number starting at N, where N is a real number, to said peer to peer network node;

recording a specific file name that is sent corresponding to the file index number starting at N contained in each of the responses from the nodes;

automatically incrementing the file index number and repeating the requests until such time as the nodes no longer respond; and

automatically recording the client identification of the nodes and their responses into a data collection system;

wherein each of the requests is a push request for an out of band direct connection over a transport network containing at least the following fields;

a client ID of the corresponding node, the file index number starting at N, Internet Protocol (IP) address of said peer to peer network node, and TCP/IP port number of said peer to peer network node; and

wherein each of the responses from the nodes includes at least the following;

the client ID of the corresponding node, the file index number starting at N, and the specific file name corresponding to the file index number starting at N.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said list is generated by recording the client identification of the nodes that are responding to requests.

8. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said list is generated by recording the client identification of the nodes that are responding to a specific search request.

9. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said list is generated by recording the client identification of the nodes whose responses match a certain term.

10. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said list is generated by recording the client identification of the nodes who respond to said peer to peer network node when said peer to peer network node sends a specific request.

11. A method of operating a peer to peer network node, the method comprising:

connecting to a peer to peer network;

sending a request to another node on the peer to peer network for a file having a file index number of N, where N is a real number;

recording a file name corresponding to the file index number of N contained in a response from the other node;

automatically incrementing the file index number; and

repeating the sending, recording and incrementing steps until all file names of the other node are recorded;

wherein the request is a push request for an out of band direct connection over a transport network containing at least the following fields;

a client ID of the other node, the file index number of N, Internet Protocol (IP) address of said peer to peer network node, and TCP/IP port number of said peer to peer network node; and

wherein the response from the other node includes at least the following;

the client ID of the other node, the file index number of N, and the file name corresponding to the file index number of N.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the transport network is the internet.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising determining the other node thought to be providing terrorist information or information detrimental to national security.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the request is used to locate copyrighted or illegal information.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising building profiles of users of the other node and what the users have downloaded.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising using the recordings for marketing purposes.