Patent ID: 8140642

Claim:
A method for providing updates to a computer, comprising: initiating a process on a first computer, the first computer having a connection to a local subnet; determining if the first computer is directly connected to an external network in response to the initiation of the process; sending data, by the first computer, to a server computer over the external network if the first computer is determined to have a direct connection to the external network, wherein the act of sending data includes parsing a URL to generate a modified URL, and wherein the act of generating a modified URL includes converting the URL from a first protocol to a second protocol; automatically attempting to identify, by the first computer, a second computer connected to the local subnet having a direct connection to the external network if the first computer is determined not to have a direct connection to the external network, wherein the act of attempting to identify the second computer includes broadcasting a connection lookup request to each of a plurality of computers connected to the local subnet; sending data, by the first computer, to the server computer over the external network via the direct connection of the second computer if the first computer identifies the second computer as having a direct connection to the external network; and displaying, by the first computer, an error message on the first computer if none of the plurality of computers connected to the local subnet responds to the connection lookup request within a specified time period, wherein the process includes an update process for updating at least one aspect of the first computer with at least one of software and data that is communicated between the first computer and the server computer.