Patent ID: 7730170

Claim:
A method for identifying devices in a network, comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of sets of attributes from a corresponding plurality of devices connectable to the network during an initialization stage; creating a database containing a plurality of entries, each entry corresponding to one of the devices connected to the network and comprising the set of attributes for said device; receiving from a first one of the devices connected to the network a current set of attributes associated with the first device during a recognition process; for each of at least a portion of the plurality of entries in said database, generating a similarity metric, wherein generating the similarity metric includes: selecting a current entry from the plurality of entries in the database, comparing each of the attributes of the received set of attributes and respective attributes of the current entry, and generating the similarity metric in response to the comparisons; said similarity metric taking into account both matches between respective attributes and mismatches between respective attributes; determining a candidate entry of the plurality of entries in the database for which the higher similarity metric is obtained; and on the basis of the similarity metric, identifying said first device as the one to which said candidate entry corresponds: wherein the sets of attributes each include: Primary IP address, Serial number, PC Manufacturer, PC Model, PC Version, UUID, MAC address, Domain name, System name, and Hard Disk Serial Number; if said higher similarity metric is lower than said recognition threshold, then creating in said database a new entry for said first device, with stored attributes equal to said current attributes; and if one of the attributes fulfills a given condition of insignificance, then that attribute is excluded from the comparison, wherein the attributes include the device serial number, and if the serial number is determined to he an insignificant serial number the serial number attribute is excluded from the comparison.