International Business Machines Corporation

Sreedhar Reddy Arda

William Mitchell Edwards

Leigh Allen Williamson

Ajay Arvind Apte

David J Kuettel

Todd Michael Wiese

A method for providing network security is disclosed wherein a network is comprised of at least one client and at least one server. The server identity may be unknown at the time of a client request. The method begins when a client transmits an information processing request and a negotiator object reference to a server. The server receives the information processing request and the negotiator object reference. If the server can process the request it becomes the accepting server. If the server cannot process the request, the server retransmits the request. This process continues until an accepting server is located. Next, the accepting server initiates a server request for the client to process an authentication object in response to the received negotiator object reference. The accepting server determines whether the client has the authentication object and if the client does not have the authentication object the accepting server sends the authentication object to the client. Then the client processes a method on the authentication object. The accepting server verifies client authentication in response to the authentication object processed by the accepting server. Next, the accepting server services the information processing request if the client is verified such that a server which is unknown to a client at the time of a client request can verify a requesting clients authenticity.

Client authentication by server not known at request time

An apparatus and method of mapping a file name to a computer system in a network of computer systems are provided. In a first embodiment, a list of names of the computer systems starting with a root name is created. The filename itself starts with a root name and consists of an aggregation of names. When the filename is obtained, each name is matched one at a time and in the order of appearance to the names in the list. In order for a match, the order of appearance of the names in the list of names and that of the names in the filename must be the same. The last name in the list of names to be matched with a name in the filename represents a computer system within which the file is contained. In a second embodiment, the list of names is in the form of a tree of names. Matching the names of the tree to the names in the filename includes traversing a branch of that tree to a leaf node, the leaf node being the last node in the tree.

Method of locating and downloading files on a network

A separate window is provided for each of multiple OpenDoc Canvas objects, thereby effecting a multiple Canvas-per-compound document design. Possibility of one OpenDoc object drawing in another object's screen area is eliminated by clipping imposed by the graphics engine on a per-window basis. Multiple different rendering libraries may be employed for screen imaging. The raw window may be used for direct platform-specific drawing functions and other rendering toolkits. User interface elements associated with alternative graphical user interfaces may be used as the root of a window hierarchy. A PlatformCanvas represents a handle to platform-dependent data types which are passed directly to native drawing routines and which provides a generic entity for specifically handling platform-specific architectures, providing a generic representation of platform-specific structures.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Sreedhar Reddy Arda