US 5,784,564 AGranted

Closed browser for computer and computer network

AssigneeHigh Technology Solutions, Inc.

InventorsAllan J. Camaisa, Kevin R. Walden, Timothy G. Klepeis

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Abstract

A closed browser for navigating the world-wide web includes a tabular listing of destination addresses, such as uniform resource location codes (URL). Thus, the destination addresses can correspond to open links on the Internet, closed links on the Internet, and may also correspond to one or more local area networks (LANs)/intranets, and indeed to particular directories or files on the LAN or single user hard drive. A user may select a destination address only from the tabular listing, and may not directly input a URL that is not contained in the listing. A closed site determiner utility is also provided for determining whether a link is open or closed, based on user-defined criteria.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A computer program device comprising:

a computer program storage device readable by a digital processing system;
and
a program means on the program storage device and including instructions executable by the digital processing system for performing method steps for accessing preselected nodes of a computer network having access to computer sites worldwide wherein at least some of the nodes are in communication with each other via communication links, the method steps comprising:
arranging a listing of addresses of the preselected nodes;
presenting at least a portion of the listing of the preselected nodes to a user of a predetermined computer of the network;
enabling selection of only an address on the listing of the preselected nodes for accessing the associated node from the predetermined computer, such that a node having an address not contained in the listing of the preselected nodes cannot be accessed;
arranging a listing of closed links;
enabling the user of the predetermined computer to access a link associated with one of the preselected nodes, based on whether the link appears in the listing of closed links;
defining one of the nodes to be a test node;
determining whether the test node affords access to an n.sup.th level node via (n-1) communications links, wherein "n" is an integer;
and
designating the test node as an open node when n bears a preselected relationship to a predetermined integer.

9 more elements

An improved network browser, including a conventional network browsing computer program for enabling a user of computer programmed with the browser to navigate a computer network having nodes and links, wherein the improvement comprises:

a closed access module presenting to the user only a predefined list of uniform resource locations (URLs) for access, the closed access module not permitting access to a URL not on the list, the closed access module being associated with:
computer readable code means for defining one of the nodes to be a test node;
and computer readable code means for determining whether the test node affords access to an n.sup.th level node via (n-1) communications links, wherein "n" is an integer, such that the test node can be designated as an open node when n exceeds a predetermined integer.

A computer defining a network node and connected to a computer network via a link, comprising:

computer readable code means for arranging a listing of addresses of preselected nodes;
computer readable code means for presenting at least a portion of the listing of addresses of preselected nodes to a user of the computer;
computer readable code means for enabling selection of only an address on the listing of addresses of preselected nodes for accessing the associated node from the computer, such that a node having an address not contained in the listing of addresses of preselected nodes cannot be accessed by the computer;
computer readable code means for arranging a listing of closed links;
computer readable code means for enabling the user of the computer to access a link associated with one of the preselected nodes based on whether the link appears in the listing of closed links;
computer readable code means for defining one of the nodes to be a test node;
computer readable code means for determining whether the test node affords access to an n.sup.th level node via (n-1) communications links, wherein "n" is an integer;
and
computer readable code means for designating the test node as an open node when n bears a preselected relationship to a predetermined integer.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.