Patent ID: 7752659
Filing Date: 2010-07-06
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: communicatively coupling a network interface card (NIC) to a network, wherein the NIC is capable of providing a network interface between a client computer and the network; logically isolating the network interface card (NIC) from the client computer; selectively accepting, by the NIC, one or more specialized data packets from the client computer, wherein the specialized data packets contain a fix to update a configuration of the NIC; updating the configuration of the NIC, wherein the NIC is updated by applying the specialized data packets to configure the NIC to accept data packets only from an authorized address; and enabling the NIC to accept network traffic by loading a secret code from the client computer into a register in the NIC, wherein the secret code is loaded prior to selectively accepting data packets from the authorized address.