Network management providing network health information and lockdown security

• US 8,316,438 B1
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Pure Networks, LLC
• Inventors: Bush, Steve, Mooney, Steve, Gery, Ron, Marl, Brett, Tebbs, Matthew, Liu, Xin, Mevissen, John, Hinds, Josh J
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoffman, Brandon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Michael D
• Application Number:
  US11/696,638
• Time in Patent Office: 2,057 Days
• Field of Search: 726/23
• US Class Current: 726/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

Network management to establish and maintain the health and security of a computing network, such as a home network. A network management tool may identify the media access control (MAC) address for each device in the network, and allow a user to identify which devices are authorized to be a member of the network. If the network gateway device supports MAC address filtering, a user can then employ the network management tool to configure the router to exclude non-authorized devices from joining or remaining in the network based upon their MAC addresses. Further, the network management tool may allow a user to configure a wireless gateway device to stop broadcasting its service set identifier (SSID), change the SSID, or both, identify to the user when a wireless gateway device is using encryption, and, if so, what type of encryption. Still further, the tool may monitor the status of various software applications on devices in the network, and then alert a user if the status of any of the devices in the network requires attention. Further, the network management tool may provide recommendations to a user for correcting or changing the status of the monitored software applications.

Claims

1. A method to be executed by a network management tool on a personal computer, comprising:

monitoring a first computing device and a second computing device, which are configured to achieve connectivity to a computing network via wireless connections;

determining that the second computing device is not connected to the computing network;

synchronizing a list of device operations in the second computing device with a list of device operations in the first computing device when the second computing device is connected to the computing network such that the second device has a list of device operations that occurred when the second device was offline;

receiving health or security information for the first and second computing devices to be combined and subsequently rendered on a display of the personal computer; and

filtering which devices are permitted to connect to the computing network through a wireless gateway device provisioned for providing the wireless connections in a single residence of a residential environment in which the first computing device and the second computing device are operating and wherein the network management tool is configured to;

monitor a status of a connection to a printer;

monitor antivirus software operating on the first computing device and the second computing device;

detect that the antivirus software is not operational in the first computing device; and

remotely fix the antivirus software of the first computing device using the network tool such that the antivirus software becomes operational.

2. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving the health or security information for the second computing device from a monitoring service running on the second computing device.

3. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving the health or security information for the second computing device from a monitoring service running on a third computing device connected to the second computing device.

4. The method recited in claim 3, wherein the second computing device is a computing appliance.

5. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising

receiving health or security information for a third computing device connected to the computing network.

6. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the combined health and security information is displayed with a map of the computing network.

7. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the health or security information includes information relating to firewall software applications, anti-virus software applications, or other anti-malware software application.

8. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the health or security information includes information relating to operation of an operating system.

9. The method recited in claim 7, further comprising determining from the health or security information that at least one of said applications has not been installed on the second computing device.

10. The method recited in claim 9, further comprising installing said at least one application on the second computing device using at least one electronic device remote from the second computing device.

11. The method recited in claim 7, further comprising determining from the health or security information that at least one of said applications is not operational on the second computing device.

12. The method recited in claim 11, further causing said at least one application to be operational on the second computing device using at least one electronic device remote from the second computing device.

13. The method recited in claim 7, further comprising:

determining from the health or security information that at least one of said applications is not operational on the second computing device; and

providing, using at least one electronic device remote from the second computing device, a recommendation for correcting a functionality or changing a status of the at least one of said applications.

14. The method recited in claim 9, further comprising providing a recommendation of said at least one application to be installed on the second computing device.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the printer was designated as a shared printer when the second computing device was not connected to the computing network, the method further comprising:

configuring the second computing device to use the shared printer when the second device becomes connected to the computing network.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating, when the second computing device is connected to the computing network, the list of device operations in the first computing device with a list of device operations in the second computing device that occurred when the second computing device was not connected to the computing network.

15. A network management tool resident on a personal computer and configured for:

monitoring a first computing device and a second computing device, which are configured to achieve connectivity to a computing network via wireless connections;

determining that the second computing device is not connected to the computing network;

synchronizing a list of device operations in the second computing device with a list of device operations in the first computing device when the second computing device is connected to the computing network such that the second device has a list of device operations that occurred when the second device was offline;

filtering which devices are permitted to connect to the computing network through a wireless gateway device provisioned for providing the wireless connections in a single residence of a residential environment in which the first computing device and the second computing device are operating;

monitoring a status of a connection to a printer;

monitoring antivirus software operating on the first computing device and the second computing device;

detecting that the antivirus software is not operational in the first computing device, which is a laptop; and

remotely fixing the antivirus software of the first computing device using the network tool such that the antivirus software becomes operational.

16. The network management tool recited in claim 15, further configured for maintaining a list of identified member devices.

17. The network management tool recited in claim 15, further comprising a monitoring module operable to alert a user when a wireless gateway device is not using encryption.