Patent ID: 6732141
Filing Date: 2004-05-04
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
A method of charging for use of a computer network comprising:measuring an amount of processing power of a computer that is being made available to said computer network; measuring an amount of network resources being used by said computer; determining a charge for access to said computer network by said computer based on a difference between said measured amount of processing power of said computer being made available to said computer network and said measured amount of network resources being used by said computer; coupling the computer via the network to one or more other computers of the computer network using a wireless network connection; controlling, based on input received from a user of the computer, one or more processing units of a microprocessor of a microchip of the computer; and selectively permitting access through the computer network to one or more of the processing units using a firewall of the microchip, the firewall being configured to permit access through the computer network to execute all or a portion of a shared computer processing operation.