Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Distributed data processing – Client/server
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-15
2002-01-08
Meky, Moustafa M. (Department: 2153)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Distributed data processing
Client/server
C709S217000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06338082
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to information services, and more specifically relates to a method and apparatus for integrating resource location and registration services.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Internet is a vast computer network having many smaller networks that span the world. A network provides a distributed communicating system of computers that are interconnected by various electronic communication links and computer software protocols. Because of the Internet's distributed and open network architecture, it is possible to transfer data from one computer to any other computer world wide. In 1991, the World-Wide-Web (Web or WWW) revolutionized the way information is managed and distributed through the Internet.
The Web is based on the concept of hypertext and a transfer method known as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which is designed to run primarily over a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection that employs a standard Internet setup. A server computer may provide the data and a client computer may display or process it. TCP may then convert messages into streams of packets at the source, then reassembles them back into messages at the destination. Internet Protocol (IP) handles addressing, seeing to it that packets are routed across multiple nodes and even across multiple networks with multiple standards. HTTP protocol permits client systems connected to the Internet to access independent and geographically scattered server systems also connected to the Inernet. Client side browsers, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, provide efficient graphical user interface (GUI) based client applications that implement the client side portion of the HTTP protocol. One format for information transfer is to create documents using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML pages are made up of standard text as well as formatting codes that indicate how the page should be displayed. The client side browser reads these codes in order to display the page.
A web page is static when it requires no variables to display information or link to other predetermined web pages. A web page is dynamic when arguments are passed which are either hidden in the web page or entered from the client browser to supply the necessary inputs displayed on the web page. Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard for running external programs from a web server. CGI specifies how to pass arguments to the executing program as part of the HTTP server request. Commonly, a CGI script can take the name and value arguments from an input form of a first web page which is be used as a query to access a database server and generate an HTML web page with customized data results as output that is passed back to the client browser for display.
The Web is a means of accessing information on the Internet that allows a user to “surf the web” and navigate the Internet resources intuitively, without technical knowledge. The Web dispenses with command-line utilities, which typically require a user to transmit sets of commands to communicate with an Internet server. Instead, the Web is made up of millions of interconnected web pages, or documents, which can be displayed on a computer monitor. Hosts running special servers provide the Web pages. Software that runs these Web servers is relatively simple and is available on a wide range of computer platforms including PC's. Equally available is a form of client software, known as a Web browser, which is used to display Web pages as well as traditional non-Web files on the client system.
A network resource identifier such as a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a compact string of characters for identifying an abstract or physical resource. URIs are the generic set of all names and addresses that refer to objects on the Internet. URIs that refer to objects accessed with existing protocols are known as Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). A URL is the address of a file accessible on the Internet. The URL contains the name of the protocol required to access the resource, a domain name, or IP address that identifies a specific computer on the Internet, and a hierarchical description of a file location on the computer. For example the URL “http://www.example.com/index.html”, where “http” is the scheme or protocol, “www.example.com” is the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), and “index.html” is the filename located on the server.
Because an Internet address is a relatively long string of numbers (e.g., 31.41.59.26) that is difficult to remember, Internet users rely on domain names, memorable and sometimes catchy words corresponding to these numbers, in order to use electronic mail (e-mail) and to connect to Internet sites on the Web. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a set of protocols and services on a network that allows users to utilize domain names when looking for other hosts (e.g., computers) on the network. The DNS is composed of a distributed database of names. The names in the DNS database establish a logical tree structure called the domain name space. Each node or domain in the domain name space is named and can contain subdomains. Domains and subdomains are grouped into zones to allow for distributed administration of the name space.
The DNS provides a mechanism so backup databases can be identified in case the first one becomes unavailable. DNS databases are updated automatically so that information on one name server does not remain out-of-date for long. A client of the DNS is called a resolver; resolvers are typically located in the application layer of the networking software of each TCP/IP capable machine. Users typically do not interact directly with the resolver. Resolvers query the DNS by directing queries at name servers, which contain parts of the distributed database that is accessed by using the DNS protocols to translate domain names into IP addresses needed for transmission of information across the network.
The Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) implements an Internet name server for the UNIX operating system. The BIND consists of a name server and a resolver library. BIND is fully integrated into UNIX network programs for use in storing and retrieving host names and addresses by calling a routine from the resolver library called gethostbyname ( ) which returns the IP address corresponding to a given Internet host name. Error return status from gethostbyname( ) is indicated by return of a NULL pointer.
At the heart of Netscape client products lies the Netscape Network Library (netlib). A necessity of any network based client browser application is to send and receive data over a connection. This is accomplished in netlib by making a call to NET_GetURL( ). Among NET_GetURL( )'s arguments is a URL_Struct which contains the actual URL to be retrieved. When a call to NET_GetURL( ) is made, a connection is established between the client making the request and the host machine named in the URL, a request is sent in a particular format specified by the protocol (e.g., http, ftp), and data is received by the client, from the host machine.
In order to resolve host names, netlib uses a standard DNS lookup mechanism. NET_FindAddress( ) makes the gethostbyname( ) call to lookup the IP address for the specified host from a DNS database stored on a DNS server, and is called from NET_BeginConnect( ). If a numeric IP address is passed into NET_FindAddress( ), it is passed directly into the gethostbyname( ) call which will always return success when an IP address is passed in. NET_FindAddress( ) is actually called repeatedly until it returns success or failure. Upon success the host entity struct is filled out, and cached. Upon failure, the host entity struct is freed and the “not found” result is passed back up to the caller.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,724 issued on Feb. 8, 2000 by Bhatia, et al., entitled, “Apparatus and methods for use therein for an ISDN LAN modem that displays fault information to local hosts through interception of host DNS request messages” discloses a mechanism t
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