Localization of clients and servers

• US 7,962,570 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2007
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kenney, William
• Primary Examiner(s): LY, ANH VU H
• Application Number:
  US11/838,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20070280229A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,400 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/073 in a memory management context, e.g. virtual memory or cache management memory management G06F12/00; testing of static memory units G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/06 Message adaptation to terminal or network requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A data transfer method includes receiving terminal server identification data at a host system from a terminal server, querying a database to obtain localized information service data associated with the terminal server identification data, and sending the localized information service data from the host system to the terminal server. A host system providing localized information system data includes a database system, a network interface, and a processor. The database system includes records to associate terminal server identification data with information service data. The interface couples the host system to a communications link over which the host system can exchange data with a terminal server. The processor is coupled to the interface and to the database and is configured to receive terminal server identification data from the data interface, to query the database for localized information service data associated with the terminal server identification data, and to send the localized information service data obtained by the query to the data interface for transmission to the terminal server.

Claims

1. A method for data transfer between a host system, a database, a client computer, and a terminal server, the method comprising

receiving, at a host system, a terminal server identifier of a terminal server, from the terminal server, wherein the terminal server identifier comprises one or more of an identifier associated with a vendor of the terminal server, an identifier representing a model of the terminal server, and a serial number associated with the terminal server;

determining a geographic location of the terminal server using the terminal server identifier;

querying a database, with the geographic location, to identify geographic location specific service data that is associated with the geographic location of the terminal server and includes descriptive information about the geographic location of the terminal server; and

automatically sending the geographic location specific service data from the host system to a client computer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the database includes a first record that associates the terminal server identifier with the geographic location, and querying the database includes determining the geographic location based on the terminal server identifier from the first record.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the database further includes a record that associates the geographic location with service data that is specific to the geographic location, and querying the database further comprises determining the geographic location specific service data based on the determined geographic location.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising

establishing a data connection between the terminal server and the client computer;

receiving the geographic location specific service data at the terminal server, and

forwarding the geographic location specific service data from the terminal server to the client computer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein establishing a data connection is carried out prior to receiving the terminal server identifier.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein establishing a data connection further comprises receiving a dial-up modem connection from a client computer.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the terminal server identifier comprises a network address associated with the terminal server.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving the terminal server identifier further comprises receiving a data packet from the terminal server, the data packet including the terminal server network address.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the data packet includes request data received at the terminal server from the client computer, the request data identifying an information service.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein querying the database further comprises querying based on the terminal server identifier and the request data, and the geographic location specific service data identified by the query of the database is associated with both the terminal server identifier and with the service identified by the request data.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location of the terminal server is determined independently of manual input from a user of the client computer, and the geographic location specific service data is identified independently of manual input.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location specific service data includes one of more of a weather report for the geographic location, a sports report for the geographic location, shopping services within the geographic location, and news for the geographic location.

11. A host system comprising:

a database including a record associating a terminal server identifier with service data specific to a geographic location, wherein the terminal server identifier comprises one or more of an identifier associated with a vendor of the terminal server, an identifier representing a model of the terminal server, and a serial number associated with the terminal server;

a data interface configured to exchange data with a terminal server disposed in a geographic location via a communications link; and

a processor configured to

receive the terminal server identifier of the terminal server via the data interface,

determine the geographic location of the terminal server using the terminal server identifier,

query the database, with the geographic location, to identify geographic location specific service data that is associated with the geographic location of the terminal server and includes descriptive information about the geographic location of the terminal server, and

automatically send the geographic location specific service data to a client computer via the data interface.

12. The host system of claim 11 wherein

the terminal server identifier comprises a network address associated with the terminal server;

and

the interface includes packet processing circuitry to receive a data packet from the terminal server and extract the terminal server identifier from a header region of the data packet.

13. The host system of claim 12 wherein the network address comprises an Internet protocol address.

14. The host system of claim 11 wherein the database includes a disk storage medium comprising a plurality of records associating terminal server identifiers with geographic locations and a plurality of records associating geographic locations with service data.

15. The host system of claim 12 further comprising a software storage media coupled to the processor, the media storing instructions to configure the processor to query the database, instructions to retrieve geographic locations associated with terminal server identifiers and instructions to query the database to retrieve service data associated with geographic locations.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein a computer program comprising computer instructions to be executed by a computer for causing the computer to

receive a terminal server identifier of a terminal server, from the terminal server, wherein the terminal server identifier comprises one or more of an identifier associated with a vendor of the terminal server, an identifier representing a model of the terminal server, and a serial number associated with the terminal server;

determine a geographic location of the terminal server using the terminal server identifier;

query a database, with the geographic location, to identify geographic location specific service data that is associated with the geographic location of the terminal server and includes descriptive information about the geographic location of the terminal server; and

automatically send the geographic location specific service data to a client computer.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the instructions to query the database comprise instructions to query the database to determine the geographic location based on the received terminal server identifier.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the instructions to receive the terminal server identifier comprises instructions to receive a data packet from the terminal server, the data packet including a terminal server network address.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the data packet further comprises request data received at the terminal server from a client computer, the request data identifying a service.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein:

the instructions to query the database comprise instructions to query the database based on the terminal server identifier and the request data, and

the geographic location specific service data identified by the query is associated with both the terminal server identifier and with the service identified by the request data.

21. A method for data transfer between a host system, a database, a client computer, and a terminal server, the method comprising

receiving, at a host system, a terminal server identifier of the terminal server, from the terminal server;

determining, at the host system, a geographic location of the terminal server using the terminal server identifier;

maintaining, at the host system, geographic location specific service data,

querying, at the host system, a database, with the geographic location, to identify the geographic location specific service data that is associated with the geographic location of the terminal server and includes descriptive information about the geographic location of the terminal server; and

automatically sending the geographic location specific service data from the host system to a client computer,

wherein the host system is a single source for accessing the geographic location of the terminal server, maintaining the geographic location specific service data, and sending the geographic location specific service data to the client computer;

the terminal server identifier comprises one or more of an identifier associated with a vendor of the terminal server, an identifier representing a model of the terminal server, or a serial number associated with the terminal server, and the geographic location, and the geographic location specific service data includes one of more of a weather report for the geographic location, a sports report for the geographic location, shopping services within the geographic location, or news for the geographic location.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising

establishing a data connection between the terminal server and the client computer;

receiving the geographic location specific data at the terminal server; and

forwarding the geographic location specific service data from the terminal server to the client computer.