Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Aaron M Contorer

Pradyumna K Misra

Arnold S Miller

Balan Sethu Raman

Dave D Straube

Michael R C Seaman

Darryl Ellis Rubin

Yuval Neeman

Michael R Seaman

Robert George Atkinson

Rudolph Balaz

Robert M Price

Lucy Chao

Sudheer Koneru

Gordon Mangione

Jeffrey A Teper

A system and method for expediting the replication of at least one specified object to a replica in a distributed computer system. A source object of a source replica determines that it has an urgent change to propagate through the distributed system, and informs a replication facility at the source replica of the urgent change. The facility extracts, or is provided with, the change information from that object, and the source replica communicates information representative of the change to a destination replica. A replication facility at the destination replica provides the change information to a destination replica object, which uses the information to make itself consistent with the source replica object.

Urgent replication facility

A software system unifies directory services with the file system. Directory service entries and other files are all stored in a common logical format, such as an object format. The unification of files with directory service entries allows a common set of tools to operate on both such entities and allows a common name space to be utilized. Security measures are taken so as to prevent unauthorized access to the directory service entries.

Unification of directory service with file system service

A certification or signing method ensures the authenticity and integrity of a computer program, an executable file, or code received over a computer network. The method is used by a publisher or distributor to 'sign' an executable file so it can be transmitted with confidence to a recipient over an open network like the Internet. The executable file may be of any executable form, including an executable or portable executable .exe file format, a .cab cabinet file format, an .ocx object control format, or a Java class file. The code signing method assures the recipient of the identity of the publisher as the source of file (i.e., its authenticity) and that the file has not been modified after being transmitted by the publisher (i.e., the integrity of the file). As a result, the code signing method allows an executable file to be transmitted over open computer networks like the Internet with increased certainty in the identity of the source of the file and minimized risk of contracting a computer virus or other malicious executable computer files.

Code certification for network transmission

An Online Brokering Service provides user authentication and billing services to allow users to anonymously and securely purchase online services from Service Providers (SP) sites (e.g., World Wide Web sites) over a distributed public network, which may be an untrusted public network such as the Internet. Users and SP sites initially register with the Brokering Service, and are provided with respective client and server software components for using the Brokering Service. In one embodiment, when a user initially connects to an SP site, the SP site transmits a challenge message over the public network to the user computer, and the user computer generates and returns and cryptographic response message (preferably generated using a password of the user). The SP site then passes the response message to the Brokering Service, which in-turn looks up the user's password and authenticates the response message. If the response message is authentic, the Online Brokering Service transmits an anonymous ID to the SP site, which can be used for subsequently billing the user. In addition, the Online Brokering Service transmits user-specific access rights data to the SP site, allowing the SP site to customize its services for the particular user. Billing events generated by the SP sites are transmitted to the Brokering Service, which maintains a user-viewable bill that shows all charges from all SP sites accessed by the user. Advantageously, the payment information (e.g., credit card number) and other personal information of users are not exposed to the SP sites, and are not transmitted over the distributed network.

System and method for providing trusted brokering services over a

Unification of directory service with file system services

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Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Aaron M Contorer