Patent ID: 7443807

Claim:
A system for a discovering electronic device to discover the presence and network address of one or more discoverable electronic devices which are connected to the same network as the discovering device and which are located in the same delimited space as the discovering device, comprising: a general purpose computing device residing in the discovering electronic device; a computer program comprising program modules executable by the general purpose computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to, receive a signature signal transmitted by a one of said one or more discoverable electronic devices, wherein the signature signal comprises an indicator representing a signature of the discoverable device indicative of its presence in the delimited space, and its being accessible via said network, and what type of discoverable electronic device transmitted the signature signal, transmit a request signal for receipt by the discoverable electronic device whose signature was received which requests the address assigned to that discoverable device on the network to be transmitted to the discovering device, and receive a reply signal transmitted by the discoverable electronic device whose signature was received which comprises data representing the requested network address, wherein the signature, request and reply signals are not transmitted via the network and are transmitted in a manner that substantially limits their reception to the delimited space.