Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Savas Guven

Srinivas Raghu Gatta

David T Jones

Marieke Iwema Watson

Aaron Wesley Cunningham

Jean-Pierre Duplessis

Rahul Chandran

Amer A Hassan

Christian F Huitema

Thomas W Kuehnel

Yi Lu

Scott Manchester

Shannon J Chan

David Jones

Described is a technology by which network connections are unified into a single user interface for user interaction with those networks. Upon receiving information identifying available networks that correspond to different types of media, a user interface component aggregates the available network connections and displays representations of the available network connections on the user interface. The result is a single user interface page on which the available networks are represented as available network connections that may correspond to destinations, for example by displaying a network name and/or a user-friendly name maintained in a network profile. Also displayable is connectivity status, security-related information, signal strength information for wireless network connections, and other information. The user may choose to show all available network connections, or only subset of the available network connections (e.g., only wireless, or only dial-up and VPN).

Connecting to different network types through a common user interface

Discovery of services between devices is provided prior to establishing a connection between devices, including wireless-enabled devices or devices that are communicatively coupled to wireless access points or other wireless communication devices. Discovering services prior to establishing a connection may facilitate finding a desired service. The services that may be discovered may be, for example, print services, camera services, PDA services or any other suitable services. Services may be discovered using 802.11, Bluetooth, UWB or any other suitable wireless technology. An information element is used to wirelessly convey information related to a service and/or information related to service discovery.

Mechanism to convey discovery information in a wireless network

A user interface for creating and joining meetings over a peer-to-peer network involves presentation of user interface windows including windows for selecting parameters corresponding to the ad-hoc network, activating sharing of Internet connections and joining an existing ad-hoc network by entering network name and optional password. The user interface further provides for entry of a country to select an appropriate wireless network protocol for use in that country when an attached wireless device supports such agility, for example, an 802.11(d) wireless network adapter.

Ad hoc wireless network create/join user experience

Methods and systems are described for simplified creation of, connection to, and termination from an ad hoc wireless network. Graphical user interfaces are used to guide users though creation and joining ad hoc network. The option to share one user's Internet connection with the entire ad hoc network is also described. The ad hoc networks described can provide some managed services traditionally unavailable in ad hoc networks, such as IP address assignment and name resolution services. The ad hoc networks can be created with termination criteria, such that a computer's connection to the ad hoc network is automatically terminated and previous network configuration settings are restored when one or a combination of termination criteria are met.

Simplified creation and termination of an ad hoc wireless network with internet connection sharing

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Savas Guven