METHOD FOR ACCESSING A COMPUTER NETWORK OF THE INTERNET TYPE

Abstract: A method for access to a computer based communications network, such as the Internet, includes the execution of an automatic procedure located on the memory units of the electronic apparatus which has to be connected by telephone to the access points of the network, the determination of a geographic area where access is required from, the automatic dialling of a series of telephone numbers memorized on the memory units of the apparatus, included in the above geographic area and referring to connecting points of a specific provider of access and use of a network, and a further automatic dialling of another series of telephpne numbers included in said geographic area and referring to different providers of access and use of the network, said automatic dials being stopped when one of the numbers dialled establishes connection to the network, or upon a checking of calls continuation after an established number of dials.

Description: METHOD FOR ACCESSING A COMPUTER NETWORK OF THE INTERNET TYPE o o o o o o o TECHNICAL FIELD This invention concerns a technique for access to a computers network such as the Internet. In particular, the invention refers to a method for automating connection, through telephone, of an electronic apparatus to peripheral telephone points accessing to a communication network of the above type. STATE OF ART Recently, communication between computer systems for data and information exchange has been sensibly developing thanks to the Internet, which is known to have rapidly widespread on a global level by virtue of being supported by public telephone lines, both traditional and technologically advanced ones, such as the ISDN, the ADSL and others. Success of this network is indeed due, also, to the availability, in real time and cheaply, of informations and data stored in files located all over the globe and connected through dedicated digital lines to computers reachable by telephone. As regards the cheapness of the operations practicable on the net, it has to be considered that it is directly bond to the cost, of the telephone connection between the user's computer and the access point to the net. More exactly, the network accessing points are identified by telephone numbers which are put at user's disposal by each Internet Service Provider (ISP), in order to allow the connexion to the provider computers, which are part of the network. As it is known, they store all users' identification data, and offer services such as electronic mail, access to sites of the net by assisted, or not, research procedures, memory spaces where each user can put its own data, commercial news or other information news visible to all users of the net, and more other services. Thanks to these services' quality and variety and also to growing variety of technical tools for access to the net -such as computers, advanced means interfacing TV sets, mobile telephone apparatuses- the number of the internet users has been very rapidly increasing. Therefore, it is easily understandable how it can become difficult to get fast connected to the net from cheap access points, that is points included in the users telephone district or area, or in very near areas. In order to better understand the above difficulties, it has to be considered that according to current connection modalities the user has to choose a specific Internet Service Provider identifying the user according to specific identification data, said Internet Service Provider being associated to a telephone number stored in memory means of the user's connecting apparatuses to the net. This telephone number must expediently coincide with the provider's nearest access points to the place where the connecting apparatuses are. Therefore, at present, the user chooses a provider among the Internet Service Providers whom he has a supplying contract with; after that choice, he must expect that the telephone number he choosed and stored for that provider is free and authorization is provided by the ISP server according to a specific access protocol; only in that way, after dialling said number, telephone connection to the internet can be established. In the case that such conditions are not satisfied, user has to repeat the above procedure, trying again with the same provider or choosing another one, but always by single attempts, until he finds the point from which accessing the internet. So, it becomes evident looking for technical solutions allowing a much more easy, immediate and less painful accessing to the network than the current one, both by preparing, transparently to the user, as much as possible telephone numbers accessing the net, and automating, after simple inputs, the search of useful telephone numbers. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention aims to provide a method for obtaining an easy and immediate connection of an electronic apparatus to a communication network such as Internet according to the above said rules. Such aim is achieved by a method for access to a computer communications network as disclosed herein. In response to a network accessing request, issued from one user by calling the execution of a specific procedure on the apparatus to be connected to said network, a well defined geographic area where accessing the internet is determined; then, a series of telephone numbers of said area and belonging to Internet Service Providers whom t ie user has a supplying contract with is extracted from a specific electronic file memorized in the above mentioned apparatus, said providers, together with their selection hierarchy, having been previously defined and stored in said apparatus. At this point, by using the appropriate phone connecting means of said apparatus, a first series of dials is performed in order to attempt to connect to the network, dialling stopping as soon as one of the call's result is positive. In case that all calls' result is negative, the numbers are dialled again in the same order for an indefinite number of times until connection is established. Otherwise, dials are repeated for a fixed number of times and, after that, the user is asked new parameters for searching the telephone numbers to be dialled, or asking a simple authorization to proceed according to previous parameters. When connection to the network has established, the electronic file containing the telephone numbers is automatically updated by downloading any new releases of the file through the same network First installation of said electronic file onto the user's connection apparatus can be carried out by transporting data from an optic, magnetic or other type memory support, or by downloading from the network. The Internet Service Providers -that is, providers of access and use services of the network which can be selected during the above procedure- are established before executing the procedure, or in the course of the same procedure, and even the providers' selection hierarchy can be fixed. The above method for automatic connecting can be put in practice by means of computers provided with standard memory means and standard interfaces with the user and telephone lines. The method may be carried out even by means of any electronic apparatus with hardwired or programmable logic, or by means of any other apparatus including storage means and processing units. The method of the present invention, or one of its parts, can be implemented in a sequence of instructions which can be stored on computer-readable mediums accessible by the above apparatuses and that can be executed by the relating processors. Advantages deriving from the method of the invention are clear. Accessing to a specific communications network, such as the Internet, is available in an excellent way, without asking the user for any participation except for indicating the geographic area, or zone, where access is required. Other important benefits generally refer to simplification of connecting whichever connecting apparatus to one of the access points of the computer communications network. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For better understanding the above-mentioned advantages and the characteristics of the present invention, this will now be described by way of an embodiment example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: - figure 1 shows, schematically, the connections that can be realized by means of the method of the invention in a part of a communications network which access is required to; - figure 2 shows a flow-chart of the procedure's operations for accessing- a cornrnunications network according to the present invention; figure 3 shows a flow- chart referred to a modified embodiment of the method of the invention; figure 4 shows a method according to the flow-chart of fig. 2, in detail; - figure 5 shows a method according to the present invention, more in detail. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION Below some examples of realization of a method for accessing a computers network -such as the internet- are described. Though various particulars and details are put into evidence for a more efficient understanding of the method of the present invention, it will be clear to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without such specific details. It will be also clear that workflows other than those shown below can be executed by using the method of the present invention. In fig.l a part of a computers network such as Internet is shown, where we can see three different geographic areas, 11, 12, 13, put into evidence by hatched lines, where points for accessing the net by telephone are. More exactly there are: a first series of points of telephone access - labelled by "a"- leading to an Internet Service Provider, 20, called ISP a; a second series of points of telephone access — labelled by "b"- leading to another Internet Service Provider, 30, called ISP b; a third series of points of telephone access - labelled by "c"- leading to another Internet Service Provider, 40, called ISP c. Each area may have a different distribution of telephone access points, called POP (Points of Presence). It can be noticed that, in this embodimenti of the invention, there are two access points of the "a" type in the area 11, one in the area 12, and no one in the area 13, whereas there is one point of the "b" type in each area; last, there is one access point of the "c" type in both the areas 11 and 12 and two in the area 13. Each one of the access points is obviously connected to the relating Internet Service Provider 20, 30, or 40. Different users of Internet can be located in each one of the geographic areas- whereas, for simplification, only one user for each area is shown in fig.l, and, in detail, one user, 50, in the area 11, another user, 60, in the area 12 and another user, 70, in the area 13. Any possible access connection of these users to Internet, according to this embodiment of a method of the invention, is shown in figure; nevertheless, the global representation is simplified even in this case, since, for each user, only initial and final connection is shown, the last one being in hatched line. In detail, four connections are available for the user 50 - whose two to the access points to the Internet Service Provider ISP a, and one for each Internet Service Provider ISP b and ISP c. As regards the user 60, located in the area 12, only two access points are available, respectively to ISP a and ISP c, assuming that there is no supplying contract between this user and ISP b. Finally, there are exactly three available connections for the user 70, located in the area 13, that is, two to ISP c and one to ISP b. So, we can see that, according to the method of the invention, available connections for each user of the net are included inside a specific area, and, more exactly, in this case, such area coincides with the area where the user is. From the point of view of the connection cost, the above one is obviously the more profitable choice, but it is useful to point out that it is only one of the choices practicable by the method of the present invention. In fact, referring to fig. 2, showing a workflow 100 of the steps included in the method of the invention, we can see that the method provides a specific step, 102, for determining the geographic area, or zone, of access. In this case, the determination is due to a specific choice of the user. It is done after the starting phase, 101, of the access procedure to y the net; in this phase, the user, by utilizing the usual interfaces of the apparatus that has to be connected, calls the execution of a special procedure, 90, which is stored in computer-readable mediums accessible by said apparatus and which can be executed by the process units of the same apparatus. After step, 102, deter ining the geographic area of access, procedure 100 provides a step, 103, of extracting, from an electronic file stored in memory means of the apparatus, the telephone numbers of the determined geographic area and belonging to specific Internet Service Providers which the user has a supplying contract with. It has to be pointed out that the storage of the above-mentioned file of telephone numbers takes place during a specific phase, 150, and that the ISP list together with the selection hierarchy are defined during another specific phase 151. Both these phases are not necessarily included in procedure 90, but, according to the method of the invention, can be done separately in order to create files or tables which are accessed to during the procedure execution. When the telephone numbers are extracted from the electronic file made in phase 150, specific dials are automatically done - step 104 — to said telephone numbers through telephone connection means and relating managing software means of the apparatus used. As soon as one of these telephone calls' result is positive, the Internet Service Provider which the dialled telephone number belongs to will establish connection to the net according to the access protocol. This is schematically shown in phase 105 of the flow-chart of fig. 2- In this last phase, an updating of the file of telephone numbers stored in the computer-readable mediums of the user's apparatus is also done. This operation is carried out as soon as connexion is established; it is performed transparently, that is, without any extra input from the user, by means of one of the services supplied to the user by the Internet Service Provider - more exactly, in this embodiment of the invention, it is done by means of file transfer service, FTP, even if it can be obviously obtained by other services, such as, for instance, e-mail. In case that all the telephone numbers detected in step 103 have been dialled but connection has not been established, the method of the invention provides automatic renewal of access attempts starting from the first number of the first provider. Both the priority order of the providers and the priority order of the telephone numbers of each provider are fixed by the user in the external phase 151, or can be fixed automatically during step 103 or before. According to a different embodiment, 110, of the method of the invention, a further step is provided in which, as shown in fig. 3, the repetition of calls is subordinated to authorization for proceeding access attempts -step 118-; otherwise, it stops. It can be noticed, referring to the embodiment of fig.3, that step 117, in which the initial Internet Service Provider for repeating all the series of calls according to the previous order is selected, can be substituted by a step where new parameters for selecting the providers of the determined geographic area and the relating telephone numbers are required. Fig.4 shows a modality for performing the automatic phase of consecutive dials, which is indicated, as a whole, by 104 in fig. 2. In fig. 4 we can see that said automatic phase of consecutive dials includes: a) a step, 134, in which telephone numbers belonging to one Internet Service Provider are dialled consecutively; b) a step, 138, in which, in case of failed connection to the net, presence of further providers in the determined area having supplying contracts with the user is checked; c) a step, 137, in which, in case of positive result of the previous check, the following Internet Service Provider is selected; d) a step, 139, in which, in case of negative result of point b check, the initial Internet Service Provider is selected again. According to the workflow of fig.4, in case that connection has not established after the dialling attempts to all the telephone numbers included in the determined geographic area and relating to one Internet Service Provider, a selection of a new Internet Service Provider is done —see 137 and 138 steps- by referring to the list of the providers and their selection hierarchy defined in phase 151. In case that, after examining the list, phase 138, there are no further providers ISP with access points in the determined area having a supplying contract with the user, in phase 139 the first provider shown on the above mentioned list is selected, and new access attempts are performed by repeating the proper, 134, phase. Fig.5 shows, in a greater detail with respect to fig-4, a modality of performing a method according to the present invention. We can see that, in addition to phases 169, 170 e 171, corresponding respectively to phases 138, 137, and 139 of the flow-chart of fig.4, in this last flow-chart are put into evidence also the following ones: a) a phase, 166, of dialling selected number; b) a phase, 167, of checking, after a failed connection to the net, if there are any further numbers included in the determined area relating to the same Internet Service Provider; c) a phase, 168, of selecting, after positive result of previous checking, the following number to dial. Furthermore, in this flow chart, phase 163 is different from the corresponding phase 133 of the method of fig.4 because it does not include extraction of telephone numbers from memory; this operation is done in a following phase- 164- as soon as the provider ISP is selected for connecting to its telephone points (POP) for accessing to the net According to the above flow-chart, in case that connection attempt has failed after dialling a specific telephone number, a check is done -phase 167- to verify if there are any other telephone numbers included in the geographic area determined in phase 162, relating to the same group of access points including the last dialled number. In case said check gives a positive result, the procedure provides selection -phase 168- of the following telephone number in the table of numbers extracted during phase 164, a new dialling phase 166, and the repetition of the connexion checking and of the following phases above said. In case that the check of phase 167 gives a negative result, the workflow proceeds by checking if there are any further Internet Service Providers in the area and, eventually, by selecting them, accordingly to what has been above described referring to the flow-chart of fig.4- Obviously, both procedure of fig.4 and fig.5 may be modified according to what shown in figure 3, introducing so a checking about procedure continuation after a fixed number of access attempts to the network. Even in this case, however, the characteristics of the method and consequent benefits are save, as well as in case of further modifications to what has been above disclosed by way of example. The list of providers that are selected during the access procedure can be defined by the user of the apparatus in the proper external phase, 151, or can be obtained automatically by executing special procedures. The determination of the geographic area for access - phase 102- can be done by a sub-procedure by which operating consecutive choices of growing geographic delimitation. The land geographic division, on which the above choices are based, may obviously vary according to variation of distribution of the different ISP's access points. Nevertheless, each new possible geographic division is automatically registered both in the new releases of the file of telephone numbers and in the new releases of procedure 90, and, in particular, in subprocedure, 102, determining the geographic area for access. Both new releases of the file and the procedure are substituted transparently to the older versions onto the memory units of the apparatus, by automatic download from the server of the ISP providing access by the method of the present invention. A sequence of instructions relating to the method, or to one of its parts, can be memorized onto the memory units of the apparatus used for connection, either by copying it from portable memory supports or by downloading from the network. As it is clear from the above description, the ethod for access is applied by usual computers provided with standard interfaces toward the user and the network, as well as new technology apparatus provided with specific means for digital transmission of data through telephone lines, in addition to memory and processing units. Obviously, other modifications to the above description may be carried out, always within the limits of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims: CLAIMS 1- A method for accessing a computer based communication network, such as the internet, comprising the steps of: - calling the execution of a procedure by means of an apparatus which has to be connected to said cornrnunications network and, during the execution, - determining a specific geographic area where access to the network is required, - extracting automatically a series of telephone numbers of said area and belonging to specific Internet Service Providers, ISP, whom the user has a supplying contract with, from an electronic file stored in memory means of said apparatus, - dialling automatically, by telephone connecting means included in said apparatus, a first series of said telephone numbers in order to attempt to connect to the network, stopping dials when one of the calls* results is positive, - dialling again, in the case that all calls' result is negative, said numbers in the same order for an indefinite number of times until connection to the communication network is established. 2- Method according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises a further step in which said electronic file of telephone numbers is automatically updated through said com unications network when access to said network is established. 3- Method according to claim 1 characterized in that said step of dialling again numbers comprises a step of checking the number of redials executed, and a step of asking for authorization to continuation in the case that said number of redials reached a predetermined value. 4- Method according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises a step (151) where a list of said Internet Service Providers with their selection hierarchy are defined and emorized in memory means of said apparatus, said step (151) being performed during the execution of the procedure of access or before said execution. 5- Method according to claim 1 characterized in that first memorizing of said electronic file of telephone numbers onto the memory means of said apparatus is carried out by transferring it from portable memory means or by downloading from said communications network. 6- Method according to claim 1 characterized in that said step of dialling a series of said telephone numbers includes: a) a step (134) in which telephone numbers relating to one Internet Service Provider are dialled consecutively; b) a step (138) in which, in case of failed connection to the net, presence of further providers in the determined area having supplying contracts with the user is checked; c) a step (137) in which, in case of positive result of the previous check, the following Internet Service Provider is selected; d) a step (139) in which, in case of negative result of checking of point b, the initial Internet Service Provider is selected again. 7- Method according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises: a) a step (161) of starting a procedure of access; b) a step (162) of determining a geographic area of access; c) a step (163) of defining Internet Service Providers ISP having points of telephone access located in said geographic area, through entering an electronic file of telephone numbers and an electronic file of Providers which the user has a supplying contract with, said electronic files being stored in memory means of said apparatus; d) a step (164) of extracting telephone numbers, located in said geographic area determined in step (162) and belonging to one of the Providers defined in step (163), from said electronic file of telephone numbers stored in memory means of said apparatus; e) a step (166) of dialling one of said telephone numbers extracted in step (164); f) a step (167) in which, in case of failed connection to the net, is checked the presence of any further numbers included in said geographic area and belonging to the same Internet Service Provider of last dialled number; g) a step (168) in which, after positive result of previous checking, the following number among said telephone numbers extracted in step (164) is selected; h) a step (169) in which, in case of lack of further telephone numbers in the determined area and belonging to the same Provider, the presence of further providers among the ones defined in step (163) is checked; i) a step (170) in which, after positive result of previous checking, the Provider ISP following the one which last telephone number dialled belongs to is selected; j) a step (171) in which, after negative result of checking of point h, initial Provider ISP is selected again; k) a step (165) in which, when connection to the communications network is established, said electronic file of telephone numbers is automatically updated through said communications network. 8- Method according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises a further step of automatically updating said electronic file of telephone numbers and of automatically updating said procedure of access called to execution from said apparatus, in which said updating is performed through the cornrnunications network when connection to said network is established. 9- Memory means having a plurality of sequences of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause said one or more processors to execute procedures of access to a computer cc-mmunications network, such as the Internet, said procedures including steps of a) determining a specific geographic area where access to said network of a specific apparatus including said memory means is required from; b) extracting, from a special file stored in memory means of said apparatus, a series of telephone numbers of said area and belonging to specific Internet Service Providers, ISP, whom the user has a supplying contract with; c) dialling a first series of said telephone numbers in order to attempt to connect to said network by telephone connecting means included in said apparatus, stopping dials when one of the calls' result is positive; d) dialling again, in the case that all call's result is negative, said numbers in the same order for an indefinite number of times until connection to said communications network is established. 10- Memory means according to claim 8 in which said step of dialling again numbers comprises a step of checking the number of redials executed, and a step of asking for authorization to continuation in the case that said number of redials reached a predetermined value. 11- A set of data signal embodied in a carrier wave and encoding a plurality of sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause said one or more processors to execute procedures of access to a computer communication network, such as the Internet, said procedures including steps of: a) determining a specific geographic area where access to said network of a specific apparatus including said processors is required from; b) extracting, from a special file stored in memory means of said apparatus, a series of telephone numbers of said area and belonging to specific Internet Service Providers, ISP, whom the user has a supplying contract with; c) dialling a first series of said telephone numbers in order to attempt to connect to said network by telephone connecting means included in said apparatus, stopping dials when one of the calls' result is positive; d) dialling again, in the case that all call's result is negative, said numbers in the same order for an indefinite number of times until connection to said communications network is established. 12-A set of data signal according to claim 11 wherein said procedures comprise a further step of automatically updating said electronic file of telephone numbers, said updating being performed through the cornmunications network when connection to said network is established. 13-A set of data signal according to claim 11 in which said procedures comprise a further step in where a list of said Providers ISP, and the relating selection hierarchy, are defined and stored in memory means of said apparatus. 14- Apparatus including memory means having a plurality of sequences of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause said one or more processors to execute procedures of access to a computers communication network, such as the Internet, said procedures comprising steps of: a) determining a specific geographic area where access to said network of said apparatus is required from; b) extracting, from a special file stored in memory means of said apparatus, a series of telephone numbers of said area and belonging to specific Internet Service Providers, ISP, whom the user has a supplying contract with; c) dialling a first series said telephone numbers in order to attempt to connect to said network by telephone connecting means included in said apparatus, stopping dials when one of the calls' result is positive; d) dialling again, in the case that all call's result is negative, said numbers in the same order for an indefinite number of times until connection to said communications network is established. 15- Apparatus according to claim 14 in which said step of dialling again numbers comprises a step of checking the number of redials executed, and a step of asking for authorization to continuation in the case that said number of redials reached a predetermined value.

Inventors: CAVALLI MAURIZIO, CAVALLI, MAURIZIO
Applicants: CAVALLI MAURIZIO, INTERFREE S P A, CAVALLI, MAURIZIO, INTERFREE S.P.A.
Application year: 2001
Main classification: H04M1
IPC codes: H04M1