Patent ID: 8683045

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving at a network interface device a first indication from a host device that a first port of the host device has been reserved for the network interface device, the network interface device configured to provide a communication interface between the host device and a network; receiving a program module at a first socket of the network interface device from the host device, wherein the program module comprises a portion of a program executing at the host device, wherein the first socket is associated with a loopback address of the host device; in response to receiving the first indication, intercepting a plurality of messages from a client device of the network, the plurality of messages targeted to the first port of the host device; executing the program module previously received from the host device at the network interface device to process the plurality of messages at the network interface device in response to determining that the plurality of messages transmitted from the client device and intercepted at the network interface device are targeted to the first port of the host device; receiving a message from the host device that indicates at least one modification to the program module previously received from the host device; and modifying the program module at the network interface device in accordance with the at least one modification to the program module previously received from the host device.