Simple and dynamic configuration of network devices

• US 8,151,280 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2004
• Issued: 04/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sather, Dale A., Simonnet, Guillaume, Gehlsen, John M., Jaff, Kosar A., Lipe, Ralph A., Ayala, Roland J., Chan, Shannon J., Kuehnel, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Cao, Diem K
• Application Number:
  US10/788,596
• Publication Number:
  US 20050108369A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,958 Days
• Field of Search: 719/321, 709/221
• US Class Current: 719/321
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4413 Plug-and-play [PnP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for configuring and managing network devices. The arrival (and departure) of devices on a network can be detected by a monitor. Upon detection, network devices can be simply and dynamically configured with little or no end-user intervention, for instance by automatically loading device drivers and allocating resources for the devices. Furthermore, network devices can be associated with other network devices such as a personal computer to facilitate seamless integration of network devices with a computer operating system.

Claims

1. A network device interaction system in a computing device adapted to connect to a network, the system comprising:

a registry; and

a processor configured to execute a plurality of software components, the components comprising;

an application component adapted to utilize a network device;

a monitor component that detects arrival and departure of the network device on the network by passively listening for the network device, whereby the computing device can determine when the network device is accessible to the application component;

a configuration component that automatically configures the network device for operation with the application component in response to arrival of the network device being detected by the monitor component, by;

receiving metadata for identifying the network device, the metadata comprising a hardware identifier for the network device;

determining configuration information using the hardware identifier for the network device, the configuration information indicating a configuration of the network device and comprising one or more registry keys; and

configuring the system with the configuration information, the configuring comprising setting, in association with the hardware identifier, the registry with the one or more registry keys from the configuration information;

an association component for forming an association between the computing device and one or more other network devices based on user input and for using stored credential information for re-authenticating with a network device of the one or more other network devices to automatically re-associate the network device with the computing device when the network device re-arrives on the network; and

a display component that displays to a user of the computing device an interface indicating associated network devices, the interface, based on an output of the monitoring component, selectively including a representation of the network device in a format that distinguishes between when the network device is available and when the network device is not available,

wherein the association between the computing device and the one or more other network devices is formed using a credential.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration information further comprises a device driver associated with the network device, and configuring the system further comprises loading the device driver.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is loaded from a local data store or is downloaded over the Internet.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is received from the network device.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is retrieved from a computer readable medium.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is retrieved from a computer over a local area network.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein configuration of the network device further comprises updating device firmware to a newer firmware version packaged with the device driver.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein configuration of the network device further comprises writing a copy of a most recent or current device driver package onto the network device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein configuring the system comprises setting the registry with the one or more registry keys, the one or more registry keys indicating a user preference.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the interface selectively includes a representation of the network device by displaying a ghosted icon of the device when the output of the monitoring component indicates that the network device is not accessible on the network.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein:

the interface displays representations of a set of network devices that have associated with the computing device.

12. A method of configuring a network device on a network for use with at least one other network device installed on the network, wherein the network device is a computer peripheral and the at least one other network device comprises a computer, the method comprising:

receiving, through a user interface on the computer, information defining a credential;

associating the computer peripheral with the computer at least by authenticating between the computer peripheral and the computer using the credential;

in response to authenticating with the computer peripheral, storing information for re-authenticating with the computer peripheral;

locating a driver component associated with the computer peripheral;

retrieving the driver component;

loading the driver component to facilitate installation of the computer peripheral;

detecting that the computer peripheral is no longer on the network; and

using the stored information for re-authenticating with the computer peripheral to automatically re-associate the computer peripheral with the computer when the computer peripheral is reconnected to the network.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein locating a driver component comprises searching a local data store of the computer.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein locating a driver component comprises searching a remote server.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein searching a remote server is accomplished over the Internet.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the driver component is retrieved from the computer peripheral.

17. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for carrying out the method of claim 12.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the credential is an identification string and authenticating comprises receiving the identification string through the user interface.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the credential is a certificate-based credential and authenticating comprises employing the certificate-based credential.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising establishing a secure, authenticated communications channel.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising encrypting communications between the computer peripheral and the at least one other network device over said communications channel.

22. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving metadata from the network device, wherein the metadata is used in locating the driver component associated with the computer peripheral.

23. The method of claim 12, further comprising detecting the computer peripheral on the network.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein detecting comprises searching for the network device utilizing Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP).

25. The method of claim 23, wherein detecting comprises searching for the network device utilizing Web Services Discovery (WS-Discovery) Protocol.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein detecting comprises passively receiving a notification from the computer peripheral that it is connected to the network.

27. The method of claim 12, further comprising updating device firmware to a newer firmware version packaged with the device driver.

28. The method of claim 12, further comprising setting one or more registry keys with configuration information for the computer peripheral.

29. The method of claim 12, further comprising storing the credential on a computer-storage medium.

30. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method of configuring a computer peripheral on a network for use with a computer on the network, the method comprising:

receiving metadata for identifying the computer peripheral, the metadata comprising an identifier for the computer peripheral;

obtaining a credential based on user input received through a user interface on the computer;

associating the computer peripheral with the computer at least by authenticating the computer peripheral with respect to the computer using the credential;

determining configuration information for the computer peripheral using the identifier, the configuration information comprising driver files and one or more registry keys; and

configuring the computer peripheral with the configuration information, the configuring comprising;

setting the one or more registry keys in a registry of the computer and in association with the identifier; and

loading the driver files onto the computer; and

accessing the computer peripheral using channel security; and

using stored credential information for re-authenticating with the computer peripheral to automatically re-associate the computer peripheral with the computer when the computer peripheral is reconnected to the network.