Patent ID: 7016358

Claim:
A method for isolating a network from a networkable device using an interface device having a hub and a circuit board, said hub having plural ports and constructed to repeat network transmissions received on one port to others of the plural ports, said plural ports including a first port connected to the network, a second port connected to the networkable device, and a third port connected to the circuit board, said hub further including an isolation switch controllably operable to isolate the first port from network transmissions repeated by the hub, said method comprising: maintaining the isolation switch in a pass-through mode in which network transmissions are repeated to the first port; receiving a job addressed to the networkable device but on a port number to which the networkable device does not respond; implementing network functionality on the circuit board to respond to the job addressed to the networkable device; a first setting step of setting the isolation switch to a bypass mode in which the hub does not repeat network transmissions to the first port; transmitting data from the circuit board addressed to the networkable device and on a port number to which the networkable device listens, after setting the isolation switch to the bypass mode; and a second setting step of setting the isolation switch to the pass-through mode after the network transmission to the networkable device is complete.