Patent ID: 7675874
Filing Date: 2010-03-09
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method to control access of a first computer node of a plurality of nodes within a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to a chat community comprising a subset of the plurality of nodes other than the first node that are engaged in a chat about a topic by exchanging messages across the P2P network, the method comprising: receiving, by all nodes of the subset, a request message across the P2P network from the first node, the request message indicating a request of the first node to access the chat community; determining by each of the nodes of the subset whether to perform a comparison of contents of the request message with a topic profile list stored locally on each node; sending a response message from each of the nodes whose comparisons indicate the contents match the topic across the P2P network to the first node; determining whether the first node should access the chat community based on the response messages; and joining the first node to at least one of the responding nodes to enable access of the first node to the chat community based on the determination that the first node should access the chat community, wherein each response message includes the topic, a count of how many users are currently in the chat community, and a count of a maximum number of users allowed to engage in the chat community.