Patent ID: 7822832

Claim:
A method for configuring a target device comprising the steps of: identifying a target device connectable to a computer network; identifying on said network one or a plurality of groups of peer devices which employ configuration settings similar to configuration settings used by the target device; for each of said groups of peer devices, receiving input from the target device as to whether the target device is to be included as a member of the group; for each group of which the target device is to be included as a member, identifying one or a plurality of default parameters associated with the group, such that each default parameter describes a configuration setting determined to be suitable as a default setting for the configuration to which it relates based on a determination that it is commonly used by members of the group; presenting each of said default parameters to the target device; for each default parameter presented to the target device, receiving input from the target device as to whether the default parameter is to be implemented for the target device and implementing or not implementing the default parameter for the target device in accordance with said input, comparing input received from the target device to input received from other members of said group, determining whether default parameters associated with the group are consistent with configuration choices commonly made by members of said group as expanded to include the target device and, if not, changing default parameters to the extent necessary to reflect configuration choices commonly made by members of the group, and wherein the step of identifying a target device connectable to a network comprises at least the steps of: determining a context for the target device comprising at least the location of the target device and time at which it is being identified, and querying the target device for configuration settings of the target device and identification of each configuration setting which is subject to change to conform to a default parameter of a group of peer devices; and wherein the identification on said network of one or a plurality of groups of peer devices which employ configuration settings similar to configuration settings used by the target device is made with reference to said context, said target device configuration settings, and said identification of configuration settings subject to change to conform to default parameters.