Patent ID: 7363480

Claim:
A method of updating the operational firmware of a computing device via a communications network, the method comprising: transmitting from within a preboot execution environment a broadcast request for the network location of a server computer operative to provide a firmware update program for updating the firmware and for the name of the firmware update program; indicating in the request whether to update basic input/output system (BIOS) firmware or to update extensible firmware interface (EFI) firmware; receiving a response to the request including the network location of the server computer and the name of the firmware update program, wherein the firmware update program is for updating BIOS firmware or EFI firmware; transmitting a request to the server computer for the firmware update program; receiving the firmware update program from the server computer in response to the request; and executing the firmware update program within the preboot execution environment, wherein executing the firmware update program comprises transmitting a request to the server computer for a firmware image, receiving the firmware image from the server computer in response to the request, and updating the operational firmware of the computing device utilizing the received firmware image.