Patent ID: 8331391

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a virtual network abstraction and isolation layer which instructs a processor to masquerade the machine identity of a computer in a local network to enable the computer to communicate in the local network with a different machine identity, comprising: a first set of interface instructions, encoded on the computer-readable storage medium, which instructs the processor to configure a virtual isolated network interface for communicating with the computer; a second set of interface instructions, encoded on the computer-readable storage medium, which instructs the processor to configure an abstraction network interface for communicating with a network device coupled to the local network; and control instructions, encoded on the computer-readable storage medium, which instruct the processor to translate an IP address and a Media Access Control (MAC) address to a different IP address and a different MAC address, respectively, in a packet header of a communication packet transmitted between said virtual isolated and abstraction network interfaces, and to instruct the processor to translate at least one of a machine name and a system identifier to a different machine name and a different system identifier, respectively, in a packet payload of the communication packet.