The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 12, 2001
Filed:
Aug. 04, 1999
William Lewis Veghte, Bellevue, WA (US);
Leonard Thomas Smale, Redmond, WA (US);
Robert M. Price, Seattle, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for connecting to, browsing, and accessing computer network resources are provided. In a network in which the preferred embodiment of the present invention operates, a client video display includes a container called “Network Neighborhood.” The Network Neighborhood provides a constrained view of the network in a NOS-independent manner. The Network Neighborhood provides a constrained view of the network by displaying only those network resources that are determined to be interesting to the user. Further, the Network Neighborhood provides this view in a NOS-independent manner by displaying all of the network resources in a consistent manner, regardless of the type of client software that was used to enumerate or discover the network resources. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, each type of client software installed on a client determines a list of network resources that are interesting to the user. The combination of these lists of network resources is initially included in the Network Neighborhood. The user (or the user's administrator) can then determine that additional network resources are interesting to the user and can add these resources to the Network Neighborhood. Once the network resources that have been determined to be interesting to the user have been included in the Network Neighborhood, the user can browse and access these resources through the Network Neighborhood.