Patent Application
20100042674
The present invention relates to IP communication, more particularly to remotely tracking dynamic IP addresses of host devices.
With the proliferation of consumer multimedia devices and larger, cheaper memories for storing content, there is a growing desire for consumers to access personal media content from anywhere in the world. In many cases, a consumer stores media content on a personal computer. Storage may include a wide variety of media content such as video, audio, textual, pictorial, and like material, as well as interactive data. With an “always-on” broadband Internet connection, the personal computer is effectively a residential host server that is accessible from remote locations.
Most residential broadband connections utilize DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) to obtain an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Because most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have more customers than IP addresses, the addresses are typically leased for several days at a time. The IP address of customer equipment is dynamic and subject to change, thereby allowing IP addresses to be recycled. When the lease expires, the customer equipment must request a new address. When equipment is turned off, it forfeits its lease and must obtain a new lease at the next power-up.
If the user is at a remote location and seeks to access the host server from a local computer, portable laptop or mobile communication device, the IP address of the server must be determined. If there is no way for a remote client to determine whether the IP address of the server has changed, unless the original address has been maintained, access to the server will be precluded. Solutions to this problem have been undertaken. Domain Name Servers (DNS) manage a database of permanent host names and their corresponding IP addresses. However, the use of a DNS would require registration with the naming authority and a yearly maintenance fee, which is not acceptable to most consumers. In addition, most ISPs will not maintain DNS server listings for their residential customers.
Another attempt to solve this problem would introduce a proxy server. The home server would report to the proxy whenever it obtains a new lease. The consumer, at the remote location, would contact the proxy server to get indirect access to the home server. Such process would introduce delay and would pad the consumer content with unwanted advertisements. Yet another approach would be to provide network storage that can be accessed by a permanent IP address. The storage space would then incur a subscription fee and would require the consumer to upload content to the third-party server.
The need thus exists for a better way to obtain remote access to a server having a dynamic IP address.
The above described needs are fulfilled, at least in part, by providing an application program in a host server that is operative to detect a change in the host server IP address and, in response thereto, to send a message containing the changed address to a remote client. The remote client may comprise a mobile communication device. The change in server IP address may be detected by polling the server operating system or a firewall gateway or the like. The gateway may perform network address translation.
The message may be transmitted as an email message to a Short Message Server of a cellular provider for the mobile communication device. The message preferably contains the changed IP address of the server, the telephone number of the mobile communication device and an application tag. The SMS server can identify the phone number of the mobile communication device from the received message and thereby transmit at least the application tag and changed IP address portions of the message to the mobile communication device.
The mobile communication device comprises a memory for storing, in part, IP addresses of one or more host servers. Storage may be in the form of a database that correlates a plurality of host servers with corresponding IP addresses. An application program for managing IP address storage is also contained in the device. The application program is associated with the application tag contained in the message. Upon receipt of the message, the mobile communication device can extract the application tag and the changed IP address. The corresponding application program is then accessed and the stored IP address is changed to the new IP address.
Still other aspects, features, and advantages will be readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description, wherein preferred embodiments of the invention are shown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated. The invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.
The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawing and in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:
In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of exemplary embodiments. It should be apparent, however, that exemplary embodiments may be practiced without these specific details or with an equivalent arrangement. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring exemplary embodiments.
Display 111, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display, active matrix display, or plasma display, is coupled to bus 101 for displaying information to a computer user. An input device 113, such as a keyboard including alphanumeric and other keys, is coupled to the bus 101 for communicating information and command selections to the processor 103. Cursor control input 115, such as a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys, is coupled to bus 101 for inputting direction information and command selections to processor 103 and for controlling cursor movement on the display 111.
Processes are performed by computer 100 pursuant an installed operating system in response to execution by processor 103 of an arrangement of instructions contained in main memory 105. Such instructions can be read into main memory 105 from another computer-readable medium, such as the storage device 109. Processor 103 may be representative of one or more processors in a multi-processing arrangement.
Communication interface 117 is also coupled to bus 101. The communication interface 117 provides a two-way data communication coupling to a network link 119 that may be connected to a local network 121. For example, the communication interface 117 may be a digital subscriber line (DSL) card or modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) card, a cable modem, a telephone modem, or any other communication interface to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding type of communication line. As another example, communication interface 117 may be a local area network (LAN) card (e.g. for Ethernet™ or an Asynchronous Transfer Model (ATM) network) to provide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN. Wireless links can also be implemented. In any such implementation, communication interface 117 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic, or optical signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information. The communication interface 117 can include peripheral interface devices, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) interface, etc. Although a single communication interface 117 is depicted, multiple communication interfaces can also be employed.
The network link 119 typically provides data communication through one or more networks to other data devices. For example, the network link 119 may provide a connection through local network 121 to a host computer 123, which has connectivity to a network 125 (e.g. a wide area network (WAN) or the global packet data communication network now commonly referred to as the “Internet”) or to data equipment operated by a service provider. Host computer 123 may serve as a gateway to network 125. The computer system 100 can send messages and receive data, including program code, through the network(s), the network link 119, and the communication interface 117. In the Internet example, a server (not shown) can transmit requested code belonging to an application program through the network 125, the local network 121 and the communication interface 117. Alternatively, network 119 may communicate directly with the network 125 in the absence of computer 123 and LAN 121.
Microphone 215 converts spoken utterances of a user into electronic audio signals. Speaker 217 converts audio signals into audible sounds. Microphone 215 and speaker 217 may operate as parts of a voice (or speech) recognition system. Display 211 and speaker 217 can reproduce media content receive by the device from the host server.
Communications circuitry 203 enables mobile communication device 200 to initiate, receive, process, and terminate various forms of communications, such as voice communications (e.g., phone calls), SMS messages (e.g., text and picture messages), and MMS messages. In other instances, communications circuitry 203 enables mobile communication device 200 to transmit, receive, and process data, such as endtones, image files, video files, audio files, ringbacks, ringtones, streaming audio, streaming video, etc. Communications circuitry 203 includes audio processing circuitry 219, controller (or processor) 221, location module 223 coupled to antenna 225, memory 227, transceiver 229 coupled to antenna 231, and wireless controller 233 (e.g., a short range transceiver) coupled to antenna 235. Controller 221 is also coupled to messaging module 225.
Specific design and implementation of communications circuitry 203 can be dependent upon one or more communication networks for which mobile communication device 200 is intended to operate. For example, mobile communication device 200 may be configured for operation within any suitable wireless network utilizing, for instance, an electromagnetic (e.g., radio frequency, optical, and infrared) and/or acoustic transfer medium. In various embodiments, mobile communication device 400 (i.e., communications circuitry 203) may be configured for operation within any of a variety of data and/or voice networks, such as advanced mobile phone service (AMPS) networks, code division multiple access (CDMA) networks, general packet radio service (GPRS) networks, global system for mobile communications (GSM) networks, internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMT) networks, personal communications service (PCS) networks, time division multiple access (TDMA) networks, universal mobile telecommunications system (UTMS) networks, or a combination thereof. Other types of data and voice networks (both separate and integrated) are also contemplated, such as microwave access (MiMAX) networks, wireless fidelity (WiFi) networks, satellite networks, and the like.
Also coupled to controller 221 are sensors 207, actuators 201 and camera 205. Camera 205 can capture digital images and/or movies. Image and video files corresponding to the captured pictures and/or movies may be stored to memory 227. The various components of a housing (or casing) of mobile communication device 200 may be physically configured via one or more actuators 201. Sensors 207 may be provided for sensing one or more ambient conditions. Sensors 207 may include various transducers, such as electroacoustic transducers (e.g., microphone, piezoelectric crystal, etc.), electromagnetic transducers (e.g., photodetector, photoresistor, hall effect sensor, etc.) electromechanical transducers (e.g., accelerometer, air flow sensor, load cell, strain gauge, etc.), electrostatic transducers (e.g., electrometer, etc.), thermoelectric transducers (e.g., resistance temperature detector, thermocouple, thermistor, etc.), or radioacoustic transducers (e.g., radio frequency receiver, etc.), etc.
Data network 320 is coupled to radio network 330, which may comprise a cellular network for communication with mobile telephone 340. In well known manner, the cellular network includes a plurality of mobile switching centers and base stations having landline connections. The illustrated mobile switching center 332 is a gateway to the data network (or Internet) 320. The illustrated base station subsystem 334 is located within radio range of the mobile communication device 340. An SMS messaging server is coupled to the mobile switching center 332 and is accessible to computer 100 via DNS address lookup.
Mobile station cellphone 340, may comprise elements such as more fully described with respect to
Current identification of the host IP address by the mobile communication device may be maintained as a consequence of the fact that the mobile device is addressable by a permanent phone number, independent of its current IP address, or lack thereof.
At step 407, determination is made as to whether the current IP address obtained in step 405 is a new IP address. This determination can be made by comparing the current IP address obtained in step 405 with the address obtained after the previous timeout. If there is no change of address, the process flow reverts to step 401. When a new address has been detected in step 407, the service program sends a short message to the client mobile phone at step 409. An email containing an application tag and the new IP address is transmitted to the cellular provider's SMS server 336. The process flow then returns to step 401 to wait for the next timeout.
The server's IP address can be stored in a file with a host name. This file is essentially a local version of the DNS by storing host names and their corresponding IP addresses. Once the home server has an entry in the phone's host file, or equivalent database storage, it can be accessed by name, and the correct IP address will be used. Any Internet software on the phone can use this method to connect directly to the server.
Among the advantages of the present disclosure are that there is no use of proprietary protocols as standard SMS protocol is employed. Direct access to content on the residential server is provided. No additional equipment or configuration of the cellular network is required.
In this disclosure there are shown and described only preferred embodiments of the invention and but a few examples of its versatility. It is to be understood that the invention is capable of use in various other combinations and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept as expressed herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61089391 | Aug 2008 | US |
