Patent ID: 8149723

Claim:
A method, comprising: for each of one or more computers connected to a first computer in a computer network: receiving a packet containing internet and ethernet address information of one of the one or more computers; extracting the internet and ethernet address information from the packet; adding the internet and ethernet address information to a database of discovered computers connected to the computer network; and associating the internet address information with the ethernet address information in the database of discovered computers; synchronizing the database of discovered computers with other databases of discovered computers connected to the computer network by: adding, to the database of discovered computers, additional internet and ethernet address information stored in the other databases of discovered computers, wherein the adding the additional internet and ethernet address information is based on one or more communications between the first computer including the database of discovered computers and one or more other computers including the other databases of discovered computers, and wherein the adding the additional internet and ethernet address information does not cause the additional internet and ethernet address information to be removed from the other databases of discovered computers; and communicating the internet and ethernet address information for the one or more computers to the other databases of discovered computers; and conducting an additional synchronization of the database of discovered computers with the other databases of discovered computers, wherein the additional synchronization includes communicating only the internet and ethernet address information for the one or more computers to the other databases of discovered computers, wherein communicating only the internet and ethernet address information for the one or more computers to the other databases of discovered computers prevents the additional internet and ethernet address information stored in the database of discovered computers from being communicated to the other databases of discovered computers.