Administrative control and security of modems
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorDavid P. Durkin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A modem or modem driver includes the ability to individually enable or disable inbound data, outbound data, inbound fax, outbound fax, inbound voice, and outbound voice. These capabilities may be individually enabled or disabled by an administrator thereby controlling and authorizing user operations. In one embodiment, a bit mask representing permission states is stored in modem associated memory. Each feature has an assigned bit in the bit mask. The modem associated memory may be RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM or flash ROM. When the modem memory is flash ROM the states may be changed by an administrator via software.
Claims33
A method for limiting the availability of a telephony service, the method comprising:
- detecting a request for a type of telephony service on a phone line at a modem coupled to the phone line;
- determining if the requested type of telephony service is permitted, responsive to a predetermined user-independent permission data associated with the modem;
- terminating the request for the type of telephony service at the modem when the telephony service is not permitted;
- and
- disconnecting the phone line responsive to terminating the request for the type of telephony service.
A computer system that includes the capability of limiting the availability of a telephony service, the computer system comprising:
- a processor;
- a mass storage system coupled to the processor;
- and
- a processor readable code, stored in the mass storage system, for causing the processor to perform:
- detecting a request for a type of telephony service on a phone line at a modem coupled to the phone line;
- determining if the requested type of telephony service is permitted, responsive to a predetermined user-independent permission data associated with the modem;
- terminating the request for the type of telephony service at the modem when the telephony service is not permitted;
- and
- disconnecting the phone line responsive to terminating the request for the type of telephony service.
A modem that includes the capability of limiting the availability of a telephony service, the modem comprising:
- a microcontroller;
- a memory system coupled to the microcontroller;
- and
- a microcontroller readable code, stored in the memory system, for causing the microcontroller to perform:
- detecting a request for a type of telephony service on a phone line at the modem;
- determining if the requested type of telephony service is permitted, responsive to a predetermined user-independent permission data associated with the modem;
- terminating the request for the type of telephony service at the modem when the telephony service is not permitted;
- and
- disconnecting the phone line responsive to terminating the request for the type of telephony service.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.