Maintaining a first session on a first computing device and subsequently connecting to the first session via different computing devices and adapting the first session to conform to the different computing devices system configurations

Abstract

A server operating system supports multiple client-server sessions and enables a user to begin a session and later dynamically reconnect to that session even if the user uses two different client computers. The operating system has a multi-user session manager to enable multiple client-server sessions on the server and a multi-user stack protocol manager to manage one or more protocol stacks used in communicating with the clients. When a user connects to the server via a first client, the stack protocol manager assigns a first protocol stack to this first client-server connection and the session manager creates a first session for the user. When the user subsequently reconnects to the server using a second client that is different from the first client, the stack manager assigns a second protocol stack to a second client-server connection and the session begins creating a second session for the user. During this latter process, however, the session manager recognizes that the user is affiliated with the first session. The session manager adapts the first session to conform to the system configuration of the second client. The session manager then reassociates the second protocol stack with the reconfigured first session so that the user is returned to his/her original session, even though they logged on from a different client.