Discovering non managed devices in a network such as a LAN using HTTP

• US 9,112,768 B1
• Filed: 09/15/2000
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Boulter, Brendan, Linzell, Christopher Robert, Valentine, Simon Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Shin, Kyung H
• Application Number:
  US09/662,534
• Time in Patent Office: 5,450 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 709/203, 709/204, 709/226, 709/221, 709/220, 709/228, 713/168, 713/201, 713/226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The topology of a computer network may be by the process of discovery in which each of the devices of the network is interrogated to thereby produce details of the network and its operation, preferably in the form of a network map which may be displayed on a visual display unit showing the devices and links between the devices. At its simplest, and where the device is a “managed” device, this information is usually provided by interrogation using a known protocol, such as the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), of the so-called ‘agent’ of each device which stores the device'"'"'s unique MAC address, the type of device and the MAC addresses embedded in the data passing into a particular port which thereby gives the MAC addresses of the origin of the data and hence the MAC address of the devices which are connected to the ports directly or indirectly.

However, many devices are not SNMP enabled and so the discovery or interrogation of the network produces a result which indicates that these non SNMP enabled devices are displayed as “generic” devices.

There is described a device for use in a network, said device including information identifying the device, which information is made accessible during HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) authentication procedure.

Claims

1. A device for use in a network comprising:

an agent running on the device to receive hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests from a computer via the network, wherein the agent is to;

receive an unauthorized HTTP request from the computer; and

send a HTTP challenge request to the computer in response to receipt of the unauthorized HTTP request, wherein the device is to implement a response to the HTTP challenge request from the computer to authorize the computer to access a resource on the device, said HTTP challenge request including a string containing information that identifies the device, and wherein the computer is to extract the information that identifies the device from the string included in the HTTP challenge request to display on a network map the information that identifies the device; and

a processor to implement the agent.

2. The device as in claim 1 wherein the string is a parameter of a REALM field in the challenge request.

3. The device as in claim 1, wherein the agent is further to perform a discovery operation of the computer, wherein the discovery operation comprises transmission of a communication to the computer, and wherein the computer is to send the unauthorized HTTP request response to receipt of the communication.

4. A method for communicating information associated with a device in a network to a computer on the network, said method comprising:

receiving, by the device, a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP request from the computer on the network, wherein the HTTP request is an unauthorized HTTP request;

sending, by the device, a HTTP challenge request to the computer in response to receipt of the unauthorized HTTP request, wherein the device is to implement a response to the HTTP challenge request from the computer to authorize the computer to access a resource on the device, said HTTP challenge request including a string that contains information that identifies the device.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

receiving, by the computer, the HTTP challenge request,

parsing the HTTP challenge request, and

extracting the information that identifies the device for display in a network map.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the string is a parameter of a REALM field in the HTTP challenge request.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

performing, by the device, a discovery operation to discover the computer;

receiving, by the computer, a communication pertaining to the discovery operation; and

sending, by the computer, an unauthorized HTTP request to the device in response to receipt of the communication pertaining to the discovery operation.

8. A device for use in a network comprising:

an agent running on the device to receive hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests from a computer via the network, wherein the agent is to;

receive an unauthorized HTTP request for a web page from the computer;

send an HTML encoded document comprising a challenge request to the computer in response to receipt of the unauthorized HTTP request for the web page, said HTML encoded document including a <

HEAD>

section, wherein the <

HEAD>

section includes a <

META>

tag that includes a string containing information that identifies the device, and wherein the computer is to extract the information that identifies the device from the string included in the <

HEAD>

section of the HTML document for display of the information on a network map; and

a processor to implement the agent.

9. A method for communicating information associated with a device in a network to a computer, said method comprising:

receiving, by the device, a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request from the computer on the network, wherein the HTTP request is for a web page; and

sending, by the device, an HTML encoded document comprising a HTTP challenge request to the computer in response to receipt of the HTTP request for the web page, said HTML encoded document including a <

HEAD>

section, wherein the <

HEAD>

section includes a <

META>

tag that includes a string containing information that identifies the device.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving, by the computer, the HTML encoded document,

parsing the <

HEAD>

section of the HTML document, and

extracting the information that identifies the device for display in a network map.

11. A method of collecting information on devices in a network by a computer, said method comprising:

requesting, by the computer, a sys ObjectID from a device on the network, wherein the sys ObjectID comprises a command under the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP);

determining whether the request for the sys ObjectID from the device was unsuccessful;

sending a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request for an index page of the device to the device in response to a determination that the request for the sys ObjectID from the device was unsuccessful;

receiving an HTTP response from the device;

determining whether the response from the device is a HTTP challenge request including a string containing information that identifies the device; and

in response to a determination that the response from the device is a HTTP challenge request, extracting the information that identifies the device from the challenge request to identify the device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein extracting the information that identifies the device from the challenge request further comprises using realm for device type identification and display relevant device type on a network map.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

parsing the received HTTP response from the device for a proprietary object identifier (OID) meta field;

using the OID meta field to obtain a device type ID; and

displaying the device on the network map.