Patent ID: 7475139
Filing Date: 2009-01-06
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. In a peer-to-peer network comprising a plurality of clients, each of the clients being unaware of resources residing at other of the clients, a method of securely conducting a resource search initiated by a first client, the resource search included with a search request having a credentials signal indicative of the first client, the method comprising the steps of: communicating the search request from the first client to a second client, the second client having a multiplicity of second resources, each of the multiplicity of second resources having at least one corresponding access attribute, the at least one corresponding access attribute being indicative of a set of clients authorized to access a corresponding resource in the multiplicity of second resources; and at the second client, selectively searching a set of second resources in the multiplicity of second resources that the first client is authorized to access in response to a comparison of authentication data and authorization data within the credentials signal and the at least one corresponding access attribute of each of the multiplicity of second resources, the authorization data being indicative of at least one resource type that the first client is authorized to access within the multiplicity of second resources.