Automatic dialer responsive to network programming interface access
First Claim
1. In a computer having a modem, a system for automatically dialing to establish a dial-up connection to a remote computer network, comprising:
- a network programming interface having a set of application programming interfaces that can be invoked to provide communications services with the remote computer network; and
an installable automatic dialer for hooking requests to the application programming interfaces, for determining based on the requests whether a network application is attempting to communicate with the remote computer network, and if so, for initiating dialing by the modem to establish the dial-up connection whereby the dial-up connection to the remote computer network is automatically established when the network application attempts to communicate with the remote computer network using the network programming interface.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system provides automatic modem dialing for a dial-up connection to a computer network with an automatic dialer when a network application attempts to communicate with the network. The automatic dialer is installable in a network programming interface to monitor the network application'"'"'s requests to communicate on the computer network through the network programming interface. Dialing user interfaces and dialogs are installable in the automatic dialer on a per dial-up connection basis. Their installability allows the automatic dialer to be implemented separately from the network programming interface, and the dialing user interface and dialogs to be implemented separately from the automatic dialer. The network application has an offline browsing mode which allows viewing of information recently accessed from the computer network while being disconnected from the computer network.
197 Citations
29 Claims
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1. In a computer having a modem, a system for automatically dialing to establish a dial-up connection to a remote computer network, comprising:
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a network programming interface having a set of application programming interfaces that can be invoked to provide communications services with the remote computer network; and an installable automatic dialer for hooking requests to the application programming interfaces, for determining based on the requests whether a network application is attempting to communicate with the remote computer network, and if so, for initiating dialing by the modem to establish the dial-up connection whereby the dial-up connection to the remote computer network is automatically established when the network application attempts to communicate with the remote computer network using the network programming interface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of automatically dialing to establish a dial-up connection to a remote computer network for a network application to communicate with the remote computer network, comprising:
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installing a hook function interface into a network programming interface to monitor requests to a set of application programming interfaces of the network programming interface that can be invoked to provide communications services with the remote computer network; checking whether a dial-up connection exists; detecting a request to the application programming interfaces that is indicative of attempting to communicate with the remote computer network; and initiating dialing to establish the dial-up connection if such a request is detected and no dial-up connection exists. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. In a computer having a network device, a system for automatically dialing to establish a temporary connection to a remote computer network with the network device, comprising:
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a network programming interface having a set of application programming interfaces that can be invoked to provide communications services with the remote computer network; and an installable automatic temporary connection initiator for hooking requests to the application programming interfaces, for determining based on the requests whether any network application is attempting to communicate with the remote computer network, and if so, for initiating creating a temporary connection to the remote computer network by the network device whereby the temporary connection to the remote computer network is automatically established when the network application attempts to communicate with the remote computer network using the network programming interface. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A network browsing application having an online browsing mode and an offline browsing mode for a computer system having a set of application programming interfaces that can be invoked to provide communications services for communicating on a dial-up connection with a remote computer network, comprising:
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a data cache for storing recent information received from the remote computer network when in the online browsing mode; a browser for viewing information from the remote computer network responsive to user input, the browser operative when in the online browsing mode to call the application programming interfaces to communicate on the dial-up connection with the remote computer network to access the information, the browser operative when in the offline browsing mode to access the information from the data cache; and an automatic dialer for monitoring calls from the online mode browser to the application programming interfaces to detect an attempt by the online mode browser to communicate with the remote computer network while the dial-up connection is disconnected and for dialing to establish the dial-up connection when such attempt is detected. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. An automatic dialer stored on a computer readable medium for automatically dialing to establish a dial-up connection to a remote computer network for a network application to communicate with the remote computer network, the automatic dialer comprising:
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code for installing a hook function interface into a network programming interface to monitor requests from the network application to a set of application programming interfaces of the network programming interface that can be invoked to provide communications services with the remote computer network; code for checking whether a dial-up connection exists; code for detecting when the network application makes a request to the application programming interfaces that is indicative of attempting to communicate with the remote computer network; and code for initiating dialing to establish the dial-up connection if the network application makes such a request and no dial-up connection exists.
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Specification