Managed peer-to-peer applications, systems and methods for distributed data access and storage
View Patent ↗Applications, systems and methods for securely and remotely operating a remote computer from a local computer over a network while providing seamless, firewall-compliant connectivity. Secure and remote operation includes authenticating at least one remote computer for connection to at least one computer over the network and/or at least one local computer for connection to at least one remote computer over the network; establishing a secure connection between the at least one local computer and the at least one remote computer over the network; and integrating a desktop of at least one remote computer on a display of at least one local computer. The connections may be made over a public network, as well as through multiple firewalls without loss of functionality.
1. A method of remotely accessing data from a remote storage device, said method comprising:
initiating a first firewall compliant connection between a first computer located behind a first firewall in a first location and a public server;
initiating a second firewall compliant connection from said public server to a second computer located behind a second firewall in a second location;
requesting data at a user module executing on the first computer via the first firewall compliant connection from a remote storage device associated with said second computer in said second location;
searching local cache of the user module to determine whether the requested data is available and valid;
when the requested data is available and valid, displaying a file structure, on a display of said first computer, of data stored on said remote storage device based upon information received from the user module, the user module configured to emulate a file server executing on a remote computer;
when the requested data is not available and valid, sending a request to said second computer for establishing an active subscription, establishing said active subscription, and displaying a file structure, on a display of said first computer, of data stored on said remote storage device based upon information received from the user module, the user module configured to emulate a file server executing on a remote computer; and
enabling interaction with the file structure by receiving at the user module communications formatted for the emulated file server from an operating system of the first computer and responding to the communications with file structure information, the interaction with the file structure at the first computer being the same as an interaction that a user of the second computer would have with the file structure locally on a display of said second computer.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising searching said data stored on said remote storage device from said first computer via the first and the second firewall compliant connections.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising requesting a previous version of a file stored in said remote storage device at the first computer and accessing the previous version of the file.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising receiving information associated with the previous version of the file at the first computer as at least one of a Delta file or an Inverse Delta file.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user module implements Server Message Block or Common Internet File System server functionalities.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein enabling interaction with the file structure includes intercepting an Internet Protocol packet associated with a virtual Internet Protocol address and port number corresponding to the emulated file server, and responding to the Internet Protocol packet with the file structure information using Server Message Block or Common Internet File System functionalities.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising requesting the file structure information at the user module from the remote storage device, and caching the file structure information on the first computer, wherein the user module responds to the communications from the operating system of the first computer with cached file structure information.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending a request from said user module to said remote storage device for the requested data when it is determined that the requested data is not available and valid in said local cache of said user module.