Patent ID: 8924443

Claim:
A method of managing files on a file server, comprising: a. initiating a database manager at a first computer operatively in communication with a data network, the first computer comprising a data store and a first unique identifier, the data store comprising a set of files accessible to a second computer also operatively in communication with the data network via the data network; b. initiating a server pipe service at the first computer, the server pipe service creating a server named pipe which is accessible using a predetermined server pipe name; c. initiating a client pipe service at the second computer, the second computer comprising a second unique identifier; and d. requesting a pipe connection between the first computer and the second computer by using the client pipe service to establish a server pipe connection to the server pipe service using the server named pipe, establishing the server pipe connection comprising: i. sending the server pipe service a first message comprising a client pipe service token specific to the second computer; ii. receiving the first message by the server pipe service; iii. validating the received client pipe service token at the first computer against a predetermined set of valid client pipe service tokens; iv. terminating the server pipe connection if the received client pipe service token is not validated; v. if the received client pipe service token is validated by the first computer, 1. sending a second message comprising a server pipe service token to the client pipe service over the server named pipe; 2. creating a second pipe comprising a predetermined second pipe name by the client pipe service, the predetermined second pipe name known to the first computer; 3. creating a third message comprising the server pipe service token at the second computer; 4. sending the third message to the server pipe service from the client pipe service over the second pipe; 5. sending a fourth message to the client pipe service from the server pipe service to acknowledge receipt of the third message and to indicate that the server pipe service is ready for a further file operation using the second pipe; 6. receiving the fourth message by the client pipe service; 7. initiating the file operation between the first computer and the second computer over the second pipe; 8. when the file operation is completed, sending a fifth message between the server pipe service and the client pipe service, the fifth message comprising a status indicator indicating whether or not the file operation was completed successfully; and 9. updating a record in a table controlled by the database manager with a predetermined set of file data related to the file operation, the predetermined set of file data comprising the status indicator.