Patent ID: 6757723
Filing Date: 2004-06-29
Classification: G06K,H04L

Abstract:
An appliance comprising:a local network connection capable of coupling to a local network; a storage medium; a processor; an interconnection mechanism coupling the local network connection, the storage medium and the processor; wherein the storage medium is configured with a booter module that when run on the processor, provides a booter process that programs the appliance to perform the operations of: transmitting a first message over the local network to obtain a source of booting parameters; and in response to the transmit operation, determining if the appliance receives a second message containing booting parameters, and testing the parameters by attempting to send and receive network messages over the local network connection; and if the appliance fails to receive acceptable booting parameters, observing the local network connection passively, to develop candidate parameters based on network traffic and network addresses in use on the network; and testing the candidate parameters by sending and receiving packets on the local network connection.