Patent ID: 7565341

Claim:
A method for automatically configuring a server to support different types of file accesses, on a computer system having a memory and a processor, comprising: automatically determining a mode in which a file should be accessed through the server; automatically determining whether the server is configured to support multi-user access to the file; and wherein when it is determined that the file should be accessed in multi-user mode, wherein multiple users can simultaneously access the file through the server, and when it is determined that the server is not configured to support multi-user access to the file, automatically configuring the server to support multi-user access to the file, wherein automatically configuring the server to support multi-user access to the file involves: automatically configuring the server to enter a “hosting mode,” which supports network connections to multiple clients, whereby the server can use the multiple network connections to facilitate multi-user access to the file; and automatically prompting a user to obtain permission from the user before configuring the server to support multi-user access to the file; thereby eliminating the need for a-the user to manually configure the server to support multi-user access to the file.