Patent ID: 7870297

Claim:
A method for associating computer network interfaces with network policies, said method comprising the steps of: analyzing one or more network interfaces associated with a client computer using a plurality of network detectors that each output a netspec comprising a first token that is a detector token having a static value that identifies a specific detector that created the netspec and a second token that is a value that the specific detector uses to uniquely identify the analyzed network interface; determining that a first detector outputted a first netspec for a particular analyzed network interface of the one or more network interfaces and that a second detector outputted a second netspec for the particular analyzed network interface; determining that the first detector is more reliable in observing the particular analyzed network interface than is the second detector; awarding a higher priority to the first netspec than to the second netspec in response to the first netspec being output by the first detector and the first detector being more reliable than the second detector; associating the first netspec that was awarded the higher priority with a location that is linked to one or more network policies designated by a user to be implemented for the location; and feeding the associated netspec/location pair to a network interface module to implement the one or more network policies designated for the location.