Peer-to-peer service designer

• US 7,945,618 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2003
• Issued: 05/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qnext Corp.
• Original Assignee: Oren Asher
• Inventors: Asher, Oren
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr.; William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHRISTENSEN, SCOTT B
• Application Number:
  US10/360,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20040205168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,018 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 709/225, 709/205
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1044 Group management mechanisms management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A peer-to-peer communication system, including a service manager for managing peer-to-peer services, a zone manager for managing zones, each zone including at least one peer-to-peer service and a window display layout therefor, and a privacy manager for restricting access to a zone, to a select group of users. A method is also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A peer-to-peer communication system, comprising:

a re-direct server executing server software and including a database including a plurality of system users and for each of said plurality of system users, a corresponding user ID, password, and IP addresses for each corresponding user computer,

wherein the re-direct server authenticates each of the plurality of system users using the stored user IDs and passwords, and based on the user being authenticated, enables the users to communicate directly with other users;

a plurality of user computers, including the corresponding user computers, interconnected with one another and the re-direct server via the Internet, each user computer executing peer-to-peer client software,

wherein each of the plurality of user computers initially communicates with the re-direct server for authentication,

wherein said peer-to-peer client software enables a given user to select a group of other system users of the plurality of system users, the selected group stored in a list of friends of the given user;

wherein with said peer-to-peer client software said given user arbitrarily defines a plurality of zones, each zone comprising one or more functionally different peer-to-peer communication services graphically laid out within a container window,

wherein arbitrarily defining the plurality of zones comprises;

selecting, by the given user, a name for each of the plurality of zones,

presenting to the given user a listing of a plurality of functionally different peer-to-peer services, the listing including interactive peer-to-peer services,

selecting, by the given user, one or more functionally different peer-to-peer communication services from the presented listing of functionally different peer-to-peer services, wherein the user interfaces associated with the selected peer-to-peer services are graphically laid out within the container window representing each of the plurality of zones, and

selecting, from the list of friends of the given user, one or more other users authorized to have access to each of the plurality of zones,

wherein each of the selected name, selected peer-to-peer services, and authorized users are maintained as a definition for the zone,

said peer-to-peer client software executed by each of said plurality of user computers is further configured to;

activate one or more defined zones, for which the corresponding user is authorized to access, concurrently by displaying the container window representing each of the one or more defined zones,

for each activated zone, activating the one or more selected communication services corresponding to the activated zone, wherein the communication services enable the corresponding user to communicate with the given user and other users authorized to access to the activated zone,

restrict access to each zone to the selected users authorized to have access to each zone, and

maintain the definition of each zone, even when the zone is not active.

2. A peer-to-peer communication system according to claim 1, wherein the interactive peer-to-peer services includes at least one of:

a group chat service, a video conference service, and a game service.

3. A peer-to-peer communication system according to claim 2, wherein said peer-to-peer client software enables the given user to set properties for each zone by pre-designating the data to be utilized by the at least one peer-to-peer service associated with the zone.

4. A peer-to-peer communication system according to claim 2, wherein using said peer-to-peer client software the given user edits zone definitions after a zone has been defined, including at least one of:

renaming the zone name and

changing the friends of the given user entitled to access the zone.

5. A peer-to-peer communication system according to claim 2, wherein each peer-to-peer service is associated with a graphical user interface, and by using said peer-to-peer client software the given user to graphically lays out the peer-to-peer services within the container window.

6. A peer-to-peer communication system according to claim 2, wherein said peer-to-peer service includes a photo-sharing service which provides a user interface display for creating a digital photo album for sharing, including displaying image thumbnails within a directory selected in a directory browser and wherein a user drags thumbnails of images from several directories, dropping and displaying the thumbnails into a designated user photo album for sharing.

7. A peer-to-peer communication system according to claim 2, wherein using said peer-to-peer client software the given user opens a live content display interface, indicating to the given user which of said other peer-to-peer users are on-line and offline, and listing the zones of other online users the given user may access.

11. A system according to claim 1, including an advertising server having an advertising banner database, and wherein the peer-to-peer client software streams advertising banners within its user interface display based on an ad banner URL, said ad banner URL being updated from time to time by the redirect server software, based on the advertising banner database.

8. A method of building a peer-to-peer application in a peer-to-peer communication system, the peer-to-peer communication system comprising a server and a plurality of client computers interconnected via communications network, the method comprising:

registering each individual user of a plurality of users with the server;

storing, by the server, a user ID and password for each of the plurality of registered users;

selecting, by each individual user of the plurality of users, a group of one or more other users of the plurality of users, to be designated as friends,

wherein the server maintains the list of users designated as friends for each of the plurality of users;

arbitrarily defining, by each individual user of the plurality of users, a plurality of zones, said arbitrarily defining comprising;

selecting, by the individual user, a name for each of the plurality of zones,

presenting to the individual user a listing of a plurality of functionally different peer-to-peer services, the listing including interactive peer-to-peer services,

selecting, by the individual user, one or more functionally different peer-to-peer communication services from the presented listing of functionally different peer-to-peer services, wherein the user interfaces associated with the selected peer-to-peer services are graphically laid out within the container window representing each of the plurality of zones, and

selecting, from the list of friends of the individual user, one or more other users authorized to have access to each of the plurality of zones,

wherein each of the selected name, selected peer-to-peer services, and authorized users are maintained as a definition for the zone,

wherein each zone comprises one or more peer-to-peer services graphically laid out within a container window;

displaying, to each individual user of the plurality of users, via a live content display interface, a list of friends of the individual user who are on-line and a listing of each zone for which the individual user is authorized to have access;

concurrently activating, for each individual user of the plurality of users, one or more defined zones for which the individual user is authorized to access, by displaying the container window representing each of the one or more defined zones;

activating, for each activated defined zone, the one or more peer-to-peer communications services selected for the activated defined zone;

restricting access to each defined zone to the selected users authorized to have access to the defined zone; and

maintaining the definition of each zone, even when the zone is not active.

9. A peer-to-peer communication method according to claim 8, wherein the peer-to-peer services includes a file exchange service, a photo sharing service, a video conference service, and a private e-mail service.

10. A peer-to-peer communication system according to claim 8, wherein the individual user sets properties for each zone by pre-designating the data to be utilized by the at least one peer-to-peer service associated with the zone.

12. A method according to claim 8, including streaming advertising banners to the client computers.