Patent Document

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to peer-to-peer file transfer systems and, more specifically, to file systems in which file transfer is mediated by a central server. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     One of the many benefits of the Internet is the ability to transfer information electronically between computers with relative ease. For example, with the popularity of the World Wide Web, transferring or downloading a file from a server to a client can be as simple as selecting the file and entering a command to download the file. However, in order to perform a file transfer of this type, both the file source computer and the file destination computer must have the appropriate and compatible software to establish a connection between the computers, to properly format the file to be transferred, and to perform the actual file transfer itself. 
     Electronic mail, or e-mail, has also become a popular method of communication between computers connected by the Internet. In a typical e-mail system, an e-mail client allows a user to compose a text message, generally via a visual graphic user interface. The e-mail client then interacts with a mail server that forwards the mail, via the Internet to a designated recipient. The standard protocol used for sending Internet e-mail is called SMTP, which is an acronym “Simple Mail Transfer Protocol” and the sending e-mail server is called an SMTP server. When an e-mail client sends an e-mail message, the sender&#39;s computer routes the message to an SMTP server. The server examines the e-mail address in the message, and then forwards the message to the recipient&#39;s mail server. An SMTP server works in conjunction with a POP server. POP stands for Post Office Protocol and the POP server at the recipient&#39;s computer receives e-mail messages from the SMTP server. After receiving an e-mail message, the POP server stores it until the addressee retrieves it. 
     An e-mail system makes it simple to send and receive text messages. Generally, e-mail systems are able to transmit and receive non-text based “attachments” by encoding files of binary information (such as pictures or images) according to a MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) specification so that they appear to be text. For example, when an e-mail server sends an e-mail message with a binary file attachment, the server first retrieves the file from its storage location and then uses a software utility that converts the binary file into a file that is composed of text characters, such as ASCII characters. The “text” file can then be included as part of a text e-mail message. When the message is received, the recipient, or their e-mail program, runs decoding software to convert the “text” file to the original binary file format. 
     Because binary file attachments are converted into files using text characters, attachments result in a 33% larger file when encoded with Base64 encoding, which is the de facto standard. Large e-mail messages must still be downloaded from the recipient&#39;s mail server to the mail client, thereby resulting in sizable download times. In order to manage the download times, many mail systems, especially those systems that operate with low bandwidth Internet systems, such as dial up systems, limit the size of attachments to a predetermined maximum size, for example two megabytes. Any attachments over the predetermined size are either removed by the e-mail server or the e-mail server might refuse to deliver the entire message. This can be a problem for users who regularly sent large attachments, such as multimedia content. 
     In order to circumvent this problem, file transfer systems that operate outside of the regular e-mail system have been developed. Typically, these systems are server based. A user who wishes to transfer a large file to a recipient first sends the file to a special file server and receives a link to the file from the gateway. The user then sends an e-mail to the recipient with the link as an attachment. When the recipient receives the e-mail with the link, he or she uses the link to navigate to the file server and then download the file from the file server. The file may be encrypted by the file server before downloading. 
     A problem with the aforementioned systems is that the server becomes a bottleneck, since generally large files must be first uploaded to it, perhaps encrypted and then downloaded from it, often over low bandwidth links. Therefore, there is a need for a simpler file transfer system that does not require uploading a file to a server. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In accordance with the principles of the invention, a file transfer application running on a user&#39;s computer maintains a secure connection over the Internet with a file transfer gateway. When the user wants to send a file to a recipient, the user uses the file transfer application to select a file on his or her computer and the file transfer application requests from the gateway a unique ticket. In one embodiment, the unique ticket can be a short string of random characters. 
     This ticket is stored in a database on the gateway, where it is associated with the instance of the application that requested its creation and a short description of the selected file. The ticket is also stored in the file transfer application, where it is associated with the exact name and location of the file. Next, the ticket is then encoded in a URL that can be sent to potential recipients of the file via conventional electronic communication methods, such as e-mail or instant messaging. When a recipient receives the message containing the URL, he or she enters the URL into a web browser that will then navigate to the file transfer gateway. When the user arrives, the gateway decodes the URL to recover the ticket, looks up the ticket in the database to determine the associated application instance and file description. In another embodiment, the file description is sent to the file recipient where it is displayed in the recipient&#39;s web browser during the file download. 
     The gateway will then request the application instance to start encrypting and streaming the contents of the file identified by the ticket to the gateway. The gateway will then retransmit the encrypted stream to the recipient&#39;s web browser. When the recipient&#39;s computer receives the encrypted stream, the recipient will view a “save as” dialog box that is generated by the web browser. After the recipient selects the appropriate response, the download proceeds normally. 
     In still another embodiment, the gateway would facilitate the recipient&#39;s browsing a folder on the sending user&#39;s computer, with folder contents streamed by the file transfer application when the files are requested by the recipient in an on-demand fashion. 
     In still another embodiment, the URL that contains the encoded ticket would only grant the recipient access to a login page on the gateway. Once the recipient has used the URL to navigate to the login page, in order to access the file itself, the recipient would be required to enter a password which was set by the user who originally selected the file for distribution. This password would have to be communicated between the recipient and the user distributing the file by a mechanism outside the file transfer system. 
     In yet another embodiment, the gateway might temporarily cache frequently requested files, thereby alleviating the load on the sender&#39;s potentially slower upstream connection. In this case, files would be served by the gateway from its internal storage after the gateway contacts the application on the sender&#39;s computer and verifies that the file is still available for recipients to download. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The above and further advantages of the invention may be better understood by referring to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a block schematic diagram showing various connections between file source and file recipient computers and between those computers and a gateway server. 
         FIGS. 2A ,  2 B and  2 C, when placed together, form a flowchart showing the steps in an illustrative process for initiating a file transfer in accordance with the principles of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating the connections that are set up between a file source computer  102 , a file recipient computer  126  and a transfer gateway  104  during the initiation of a file transfer by means of the steps shown in the process illustrated in  FIGS. 2A ,  2 B and  2 C in accordance with the principles of the invention. The file source computer  102  is the source of the file which is to be transferred to the file recipient computer  126 . This process starts in step  200  and proceeds to step  202  where a connection is established between the file source computer  102  and a file transfer gateway  104 . 
     In a gateway system, such as that shown in  FIG. 1 , the file source computer  102  may continually maintain a connection with the gateway  104 . In general, this connection is either automatically set up when the host computer  102  logs onto the Internet  106  as illustrated schematically by arrow  124 . Alternatively, a user at the file source computer may log into the gateway directly in order to establish the connection. A connection is set up through the Internet as indicated schematically by arrow  122  to the gateway  104 , which is also connected to the Internet  106  as indicated by arrow  120 . 
     The gateway  104  solves the problem introduced by firewalls, NAT routers and dynamic IP addresses, since neither the recipient computer  126  nor the file source computer  102  attempts to contact each other directly; they both initiate connections to the gateway  104  and transfer information through it instead. The gateway  104  is configured so that it is always accessible, usually through a common Internet protocol, such as HTTP or HTTPS. Thus, any computer that is configured to perform simple Internet-related tasks, such as browsing the World Wide Web, can be turned into a file source computer or a recipient computer. 
     Returning to  FIGS. 2A ,  2 B and  2 C, once a connection has been established between the file source computer  102  and the gateway  104 , the user can start and control a file transfer application  103  that resides on file source computer  102 . In particular, this file transfer application  103  generates a graphic user interface that is displayed on the file source computer  102 . The graphic user interface can be used to select a file for transfer and to allow the user to enter a short description of the file as indicated in step  204 . 
     Once a file is selected, in step  206 , the file transfer application  103  communicates with a file transfer application  105  that is running in the gateway  104  via the previously established path (arrows  124 ,  122  and  120 ). The file transfer application  103  requests that the file transfer application  105  generate a unique “ticket” and forwards to the file transfer application  105  the short file description entered by the user and additional “metadata”, such as a file size. The unique ticket comprises a short string of random text characters, for example, “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxzy1234567890” characters. This ticket is stored in two places. First, as indicated in step  208 , the ticket is stored by the file transfer application  105  in the database  107  on the gateway  104  along with the identification of the file transfer application instance that requested that it be generated (in this case file transfer application  103 ) and the short description of the file to be transferred that was generated by the user. 
     In addition, as indicated in step  210 , the ticket is returned, via the existing pathway, to the file transfer application  103  where it is stored in database  101  associated with the exact name and location of the selected file. The process then proceeds, via off-page connectors  212  and  214 , to step  216 . 
     In step  216 , the file transfer application  103  encodes the ticket and the uniform resource locator (URL) of the gateway  104  into another URL. This encoding is performed, for example, by appending the ticket to the URL of the gateway  104 . 
     Once encoded, this latter URL can be sent to a potential recipient of the file via conventional means, such as email or instant messaging, as set forth in step  218 . For example, a user at the file source computer  102  might send an email containing the URL via the Internet  106 , to a potential recipient  126  as indicated by arrows  134 ,  132  and  130 . 
     A potential recipient user located, for example, at computer  126 , can enter the URL received in the email into a conventional web browser running in the computer  126 . This URL causes the web browser to navigate to a secure website (for example, an https website) running on the gateway  104  as set forth in step  220  and as indicated schematically by arrows  128 ,  136  and  138 . 
     Once the recipient has navigated to the website, as set forth in step  222 , the gateway  104  extracts the ticket from the URL and uses the ticket to access the database  107  in order to retrieve the associated application instance and the file description that was entered by the user who selected the file for distribution, both of which were previously stored in step  208 . If the application instance and file description are located in the database  107 , the gateway  104  verifies that the file source computer  102  is still on-line. If the file source computer is on-line, the file name and description, and additionally the file metadata, such as the file size, are then sent to the recipient computer  126 , via the path  128 ,  136  and  138 , and displayed in the web browser as indicated in step  224 . The process then proceeds, via off-page connectors  226  and  228 , to step  230 . 
     If the user at the recipient computer desires to receive the file, he or she can select the file name by clicking on it as it is displayed in the web browser. In step  230 , selecting the file name causes the file transfer application  105  to send the ticket to the file transfer application  103  over the previously established path  120 ,  122  and  124 . Along with the ticket, the file transfer application sends a request that the file transfer application  103  begin streaming the file contents to the gateway  104 . In step  232 , the application  103  uses the ticket to retrieve the name and location of the file from database  101  and, in step  234 , the application  103  begins to stream the file to the gateway, via the path  124 ,  122  and  120 . The file transfer application  103  may also encrypt the file contents before streaming them to the gate way  104 . 
     In step  236 , the gateway  104  sends an HTTP  200  response followed by the streaming file contents, via the path  138 ,  136  and  128  to the web browser in recipient computer  126 . In accordance with normal download operation, the web browser will display a “save as” dialog. Once the recipient user responds appropriately, the download proceeds normally and the process finishes in step  238 . 
     In another embodiment, instead of distributing a single file, a user may wish to distribute a folder that contains a plurality of files. In general, the mechanism for distributing a folder would be the same as described above, with the exception that the gateway  104  and the file source computer  102  would facilitate browsing of the folder by the recipient. The recipient could then select and download one or more of the files in the folder. 
     In still another embodiment, when the recipient user enters the URL into the web browser at recipient computer  126 , the recipient user would then navigate to a login page that requires a password to access the file or folder. The password would be transmitted from the user distributing the file to the recipient user by means outside of the file transfer system, such as telephone, email or instant messaging. 
     In yet another embodiment, after streaming a file to the recipient computer  126 , the gateway  104  might temporarily cache a frequently-requested file in an internal storage  109 , thereby alleviating the load on the sender&#39;s potentially slower upstream connection the next time that file is requested. If the file is cached, instead of sending the ticket to the file source computer in step  230 , the file would be streamed directly from the gateway  104  out of its internal storage  109  after the gateway contacts the application instance  103  on the file source computer  102  and verifies that the file source computer  102  is still on-line and that the requested file is still available for recipients to download. Another mechanism, such as a timer, could be used to remove the file from the gateway storage  109  after a period of time during which the file is not requested in order to prevent the file storage  109  from filling with obsolete files. 
     A software implementation of the above-described embodiment may comprise a series of computer instructions either fixed on a tangible medium, such as a computer readable media, for example, a diskette, a CD-ROM, a ROM memory, or a fixed disk, or transmittable to a computer system, via a modem or other interface device over a medium. The medium either can be a tangible medium, including but not limited to optical or analog communications lines, or may be implemented with wireless techniques, including but not limited to microwave, infrared or other transmission techniques. It may also be the Internet. The series of computer instructions embodies all or part of the functionality previously described herein with respect to the invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such computer instructions can be written in a number of programming languages for use with many computer architectures or operating systems. Further, such instructions may be stored using any memory technology, present or future, including, but not limited to, semiconductor, magnetic, optical or other memory devices, or transmitted using any communications technology, present or future, including but not limited to optical, infrared, microwave, or other transmission technologies. It is contemplated that such a computer program product may be distributed as a removable media with accompanying printed or electronic documentation, e.g., shrink wrapped software, pre-loaded with a computer system, e.g., on system ROM or fixed disk, or distributed from a server or electronic bulletin board over a network, e.g., the Internet or World Wide Web. 
     Although an exemplary embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made which will achieve some of the advantages of the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, it will be obvious to those reasonably skilled in the art that, in other implementations, protocols and translations different from those shown may be performed. Other aspects, such as the specific process flow and the order of the illustrated steps, as well as other modifications to the inventive concept are intended to be covered by the appended claims.

Technology Category: 5