Patent ID: 6871226

Claim:
A method of querying computers connected to a distributed network, said method comprising the steps of: providing a range of Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses to be queried, said range being defined by a beginning address and an ending address; selecting an IP address to be queried from the range of Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses, the selected IP address including a primary number, a secondary number, a third number, and a fourth number; transmitting a request to the selected IP address; creating a response record associated with the selected IP address in a response output file, said response record comprising the selected IP address; incrementing the address to be queried according to a predefined order, the predefined order including: (a) incrementing the secondary number without changing the primary number, third number, and fourth number until the entire range of secondary numbers has been queried; (b) incrementing the third number by one; (c) incrementing the secondary number without changing the primary number, third number, and fourth number until the entire range of secondary numbers has been queried; (d) repeating steps (b) and (c) until the entire range of secondary numbers and third numbers has been queried; (e) incrementing the fourth number by one; (f) incrementing the secondary number without changing the primary number, third number, and fourth number until the entire range of secondary numbers has been queried; (g) incrementing the third number by one; (h) incrementing the secondary number without changing the primary number, third number, and fourth number until the entire range of secondary numbers has been queried; and (i) repeating steps (e) through (h) until the entire range of secondary numbers, third numbers, and fourth numbers has been queried; repeating said steps of transmitting a request, creating a response record, and incrementing the address until every address in the range of addresses has been queried; and initiating a process that examines content at least a first address from which a reply is received.