Patent ID: 7975033

Claim:
A method for sharing network resources, the method comprising: (1) initializing and maintaining a management local area network (MLAN); (2) initializing and maintaining a plurality of top-layer virtual local area networks (VLANs); (3) initializing and maintaining a plurality of client VLANs containing a plurality of network resources; and (4) using an empty VLAN that is not allocated for external traffic as a virtual wire between a client VLAN and a network resource shared between a plurality of client VLANs; wherein a plurality of the network resources are virtual resources allocated on at least one networkable computing device, and the step of initializing and maintaining a plurality of client VLANs comprises creating an ethernet device without IP address and routing information on a network resource so that the networkable computing device does not see or respond to the contents of incoming packets.