Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Alexandru Gavrilescu

John L Miller

Graham Arthur Wheeler

Rohit Gupta

Noel Wayne Anderson

Christian F Huitema

Tin Qian

Dennis A Morgan

Patrice Lynn Miner

Aaron Wesley Cunningham

Johannes Klein

Marieke Iwema Watson

Shai Herzog

Haiyong Wang

Grigori M Somin

Xiaohai Zhang

Ilya Kleyman

Harpal Bassali

David G Thaler

Art Shelest

John W Miller

David Charles LeBlanc

Jonathan Lee Burstein

David R Mowers

Mark Markaryan

Jinyan Su

Alvin K Tan

Graham A Wheeler

Systems and methods of authentication and authorization between a client, a server, and a gateway to facilitate communicating a message between a client and a server through a gateway. The client has a trusted relationship with each of the gateway and the server. A method includes registering the client with the gateway. The client also constructs the address space identifying the gateway and the client. The client communicates the address space to the server. The client receives an identity identifying the server. If the client authorizes to receive a message from the server through the gateway, the client informs the authorization to the gateway. The client puts the identity identifying the server on a list of servers which are authorized to send messages to the client. In addition, the client communicates the list of servers to the gateway.

Secure push and status communication between client and server

A system for conveniently extending the capabilities of network systems to support telephony is presented. Also, a method and system for preventing message looping within network devices that support telephony is presented. A network system, such as a proxy server, executes one or more executable service modules having instructions for performing a specific telephony service. A dispatcher operating upon the network device dispatches messages to the service modules according to a set of resource data provided by the service modules. To prevent message looping, the dispatcher executes logical instructions that restrict the service modules from routing messages to each other indefinitely.

System for processing messages to support network telephony services

Cobrowsing web sites by two or more users is disclosed. For a cobrowsing session between a first client of a first user and a second client of a second user, the cobrowsing session is first initiated. The first user browses a web site on the first client. The first client sends to the second client a synchronization message. The synchronization message indicates one or more commands reflecting the browsing performed by the first user. The second client receives the synchronization message, and cobrowses the web site in accordance with the message and its included commands. Cobrowsing continues until the cobrowsing session is terminated. The commands of the synchronization message allow for fine granularity of cobrowsing.

Web site cobrowsing

The invention provides an apparatus and method to establish media sessions for media streams crossing a network boundary. The system includes a media relay controlled by a media configurator control module. The media relay reserves media paths (that include ports in the network boundary), opens the media paths, closes the media paths, and provides information about the media paths. A media configurator is adapted to communicate with the media configurator control module and the media relay. The control module has an event handler handling multimedia session events, a local address resolver that determines if an address identifier of the media session belongs to a private address space and a control element used to establish the media path. The control element manages resources for the media relay. A state-refresh timer is used to maintain state consistency between all media relays controlled by a proxy engine and control elements.

Controlled relay of media streams across network perimeters

The claimed method and system provides a graphical user interface that illustrates network topology information, including connection paths between devices on the local network and an external network such as the Internet. The claimed method and system may use a three column format for presenting the topology that is more intuitive for a user. Also, the claimed method and system may aggregate context and connection information from multiple different protocols to provide the topology display. Further, the claimed method and system may use a device registry to enable customized and extensible representations of the network devices.

Network map

A security infrastructure and methods are presented that inhibit the ability of a malicious node from disrupting the normal operations of a peer-to-peer network. The methods of the invention allow both secure and insecure identities to be used by nodes by making them self-verifying. When necessary or opportunistic, ID ownership is validated by piggybacking the validation on existing messages. The probability of connecting initially to a malicious node is reduced by randomly selecting to which node to connect. Further, information from malicious nodes is identified and can be disregarded by maintaining information about prior communications that will require a future response. Denial of service attacks are inhibited by allowing the node to disregard requests when its resource utilization exceeds a predetermined limit. The ability for a malicious node to remove a valid node is reduced by requiring that revocation certificates be signed by the node to be removed.

Peer-to-peer name resolution protocol (PNRP) security infrastructure and method

The present invention provides a method by which the connectivity status of network connections on a PC is determined in real-time by passively reviewing packet information from the TCP/IP stack. To achieve high accuracy of the connectivity status determination, the method involves the determination of the edge of a local network. In cases where little or no network traffic is observed on the network, scalable active probing methods are designed to make accurate connectivity determination. Special considerations for network setups like networks with web proxy servers, NAT or edge firewalls are also included to improve the accuracy of the determination in those environments.

Network connectivity determination

A method for a firewall-aware application to communicate its expectations to a firewall without requiring the firewall to change its policy or compromise network security. An application API is provided for applications to inform a firewall or firewalls of the application's needs, and a firewall API is provided that informs the firewall or firewalls of the application's needs. An interception module watches for connect and listen attempts by applications and services to the network stack on the local computer. The interception module traps these attempts and determines what user is making the attempt, what application or service is making the attempt, and conducts a firewall policy look-up to determine whether the user and/or application or service are allowed to connect to the network. If so, the interception module may instruct the host and/or edge firewall to configure itself for the connection being requested.

Method of assisting an application to traverse a firewall

A network experience rating system and method determines a network connection quality for a computer by monitoring characteristics of data traffic through a connection with another computer on the network. The network experience rating system statistically analyzes the characteristic data and compares the statistically analyzed data to historical data gathered for the computer. The network experience rating system thus provides a rating that is individualized for a particular computer based on the computer's network usage.

Network experience rating system and method

A system and method of serverless peer-to-peer group management and maintenance is presented. Group formation and discovery of private, public, and enumerated groups are provided, as is a method of joining such a peer-to-peer group. Group information management provided by the present invention ensures that each node maintains a current database from the initial joining of the group through the run phase of membership. Group graph maintenance utilizes a group signature to ensure that partitions in a graph may be detected and repaired. The utility of connections within the graph are also monitored so that non-productive connections may be dropped to increase the efficiency of the group. The diameter of the graph is also monitored and adjusted to ensure rapid information transfer throughout the group. A disconnect procedure is used to maintain the graph integrity and prevent partitions resulting from the departure of a group member.

Peer-to-peer group management and method for maintaining peer-to-peer graphs

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Alexandru Gavrilescu