Shoregroup, Inc.

Other

David M Lovy

Robert J Bojanek

Brant M Fagan

Christopher M Smolen

Kurt D Hohmann

A network appliance for monitoring, diagnosing and documenting problems among a plurality of devices and processes (objects) coupled to a computer network utilizes periodic polling and collection of object-generated trap data to monitor the status of objects on the computer network. The status of a multitude of objects is maintained in memory utilizing virtual state machines which contain a small amount of persistent data but which are modeled after one of a plurality of finite state machines. The memory further maintains dependency data related to each object which identifies parent/child relationships with other objects at the same or different layers of the OSI network protocol model. A decision engine verifies through on-demand polling that a device is down. A root cause analysis module utilizes status and dependency data to locate the highest object in the parent/child relationship tree that is affected to determine the root cause of a problem. Once a problem has been verified, a 'case' is opened and notification alerts may be sent out to one or more devices. A user interface allows all objects within the network to be displayed with their respective status and their respective parent/child dependency objects in various formats.

Method and apparatus for maintaining the status of objects in computer networks using virtual state machines

Method and apparatus for identifying problems in computer networks

A public on-line computer terminal providing the general public a variety of on-line services over the global telecommunications network for a fee is controlled by a pliant currency acceptor that activates a timing function. The public user is provided through public telecommunications channels and interface equipment access to the global telecommunications network for a predetermined amount of time in accordance with the currency inserted in the pliant currency acceptor.

Public on-line computer terminal with pliant currency acceptor

Growing community of inventors

Blossvale, NY, United States of America

David M Lovy