Dennis L Morgan

6883118, Apr 19, 2005

Jan 24, 2001

09/769199

Dennis A. Morgan - Issaquah WA, US
David V. Gunter - Redmond WA, US
Benjamin E. Nick - Seattle WA, US
Sherwood H. Lawrence - Bellevue WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F011/00

714 43, 714 25

A software tool and method are provided which allow an unsophisticated user to easily determine or identify problems in a networked computer system. The software tool comprises a diagnostic component adapted to determine at least one attribute associated with the computer system, and a user interface component adapted to launch the diagnostic component and to render the attribute to a user. The diagnostic component may obtain first information related to a local host computer, and selectively perform one or more tests associated with the local host computer according to the first information. The diagnostic component then determines the attribute according to the first information and/or the test results. A self-healing networked computer system is also disclosed, comprising the diagnostic component and a remedial object adapted to perform one or more remedial actions according to the attribute.

7080163, Jul 18, 2006

Jun 29, 2005

11/172589

Mark A. Aiken - Seattle WA, US
Gurdeep S. Pall - Sammamish WA, US
Dennis A. Morgan - Issaquah WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 15/16
G06F 15/177
G06F 15/173
G06F 3/00

709250, 709220, 709224, 710 1, 707100

A software network bridge is disclosed which allows the connected network segments to be presented as a single network unit to the host computer. The software bridge can be implemented as an intermediate network driver, abstracting multiple network segments into a single network interface for higher level protocols and applications. While the intermediate network driver acts as a software bridge implementing the Spanning Tree Algorithm, it also acts a network interface driver to higher level protocols, conglomerating information from the multiple underlying network interface cards and forwarding along commands from the higher level software to the appropriate network interface card. The intermediate network driver can also simultaneously send the same data packet through multiple network interfaces by creating multiple packet descriptors, each pointing to the same data, but each given individually to the underlying network interfaces to control during their transmission. Further efficiencies can also be achieved by the software bridge, implemented as an intermediate network driver, through the use of a dynamic allocation scheme which increases the size of the useable buffers of each network interface without increasing the overall memory consumption, and the use of a queuing scheme which preliminarily examines incoming data packets to determine if any processing needs to be performed, and queues the packets should they require processing. Additionally, a user interface is presented exposing this functionality of the intermediate network driver.

7089335, Aug 8, 2006

Jul 16, 2001

09/906328

Mark A. Aiken - Seattle WA, US
Gurdeep S. Pall - Sammamish WA, US
Dennis A. Morgan - Issaquah WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 15/16

709250, 709220, 709224, 710 1, 707100

A software network bridge is disclosed which allows the connected network segments to be presented as a single network unit to the host computer. The software bridge can be implemented as an intermediate network driver, abstracting multiple network segments into a single network interface for higher level protocols and applications. While the intermediate network driver acts as a software bridge implementing the Spanning Tree Algorithm, it also acts a network interface driver to higher level protocols, conglomerating information from the multiple underlying network interface cards and forwarding along commands from the higher level software to the appropriate network interface card. The intermediate network driver can also simultaneously send the same data packet through multiple network interfaces by creating multiple packet descriptors, each pointing to the same data, but each given individually to the underlying network interfaces to control during their transmission. Further efficiencies can also be achieved by the software bridge, implemented as an intermediate network driver, through the use of a dynamic allocation scheme which increases the size of the useable buffers of each network interface without increasing the overall memory consumption, and the use of a queuing scheme which preliminarily examines incoming data packets to determine if any processing needs to be performed, and queues the packets should they require processing. Additionally, a user interface is presented exposing this functionality of the intermediate network driver.

7159151, Jan 2, 2007

Nov 24, 2004

10/997282

Dennis A. Morgan - Issaquah WA, US
David V. Gunter - Redmond WA, US
Benjamin E. Nick - Seattle WA, US
Sherwood H. Lawrence - Bellevue WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 11/00

714 43, 714 25, 714 46

A software tool and method are provided which allow an unsophisticated user to easily determine or identify problems in a networked computer system. The software tool comprises a diagnostic component adapted to determine at least one attribute associated with the computer system, and a user interface component adapted to launch the diagnostic component and to render the attribute to a user. The diagnostic component may obtain first information related to a local host computer, and selectively perform one or more tests associated with the local host computer according to the first information. The diagnostic component then determines the attribute according to the first information and/or the test results. A self-healing networked computer system is also disclosed, comprising the diagnostic component and a remedial object adapted to perform one or more remedial actions according to the attribute.

7254136, Aug 7, 2007

Feb 27, 2001

09/794586

David V. Gunter - Redmond WA, US
Dennis A. Morgan - Issaquah WA, US
Kenneth L. Crocker - Sammamish WA, US
Eduard Guzovsky - Weston MA, US
Richard H. Lamb - Seattle WA, US
Bruce Johnson - Bellevue WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

H04L 12/66

370401

A system and method is provided for detecting, monitoring and maintaining an Internet Connection Sharing Device (ICSD). An ICSD may be connected to one or more devices, and/or applications associated with a Local Area Network (LAN), which devices, and/or applications, may attempt to detect, monitor and maintain the ICSD. Thus, a broadcast protocol for advertising status and services and a unicast request/response protocol are provided to facilitate such detection, monitoring and maintenance.

7320092, Jan 15, 2008

Aug 21, 2006

11/465925

Dennis A. Morgan - Issaquah WA, US
David V. Gunter - Redmond WA, US
Benjamin E. Nick - Seattle WA, US
Sherwood H. Lawrence - Bellevue WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 11/00

714 43, 714 25

A software tool and method are provided which allow an unsophisticated user to easily determine or identify problems in a networked computer system. The software tool comprises a diagnostic component adapted to determine at least one attribute associated with the computer system, and a user interface component adapted to launch the diagnostic component and to render the attribute to a user. The diagnostic component may obtain first information related to a local host computer, and selectively perform one or more tests associated with the local host computer according to the first information. The diagnostic component then determines the attribute according to the first information and/or the test results. A self-healing networked computer system is also disclosed, comprising the diagnostic component and a remedial object adapted to perform one or more remedial actions according to the attribute.

7559082, Jul 7, 2009

Jun 25, 2003

10/603648

Dennis Morgan - Issaquah WA, US
Alexandru Gavrilescu - Redmond WA, US
Jonathan L. Burstein - Seattle WA, US
Art Shelest - Sammamish WA, US
David LeBlanc - Monroe WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

H04L 29/06

726 14

A method for a firewall-aware application to communicate its expectations to a firewall without requiring the firewall to change its policy or compromise network security. An application API is provided for applications to inform a firewall or firewalls of the application's needs, and a firewall API is provided that informs the firewall or firewalls of the application's needs. An interception module watches for connect and listen attempts by applications and services to the network stack on the local computer. The interception module traps these attempts and determines what user is making the attempt, what application or service is making the attempt, and conducts a firewall policy look-up to determine whether the user and/or application or service are allowed to connect to the network. If so, the interception module may instruct the host and/or edge firewall to configure itself for the connection being requested.

7587675, Sep 8, 2009

Feb 28, 2006

11/364470

Aaron Cunningham - Redmond WA, US
Marieke I. Watson - Seattle WA, US
Patrice L. Miner - Kirkland WA, US
Alexandru Gavrilescu - Redmond WA, US
Haiyong Wang - Redmond WA, US
Dennis Morgan - Sammamish WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 3/00

715734, 715735, 709223, 370254

The claimed method and system provides a graphical user interface that illustrates network topology information, including connection paths between devices on the local network and an external network such as the Internet. The claimed method and system may use a three column format for presenting the topology that is more intuitive for a user. Also, the claimed method and system may aggregate context and connection information from multiple different protocols to provide the topology display. Further, the claimed method and system may use a device registry to enable customized and extensible representations of the network devices.