Systems and methods for remotely maintaining virtual private networks

#A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright whatsoever.

#Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of network devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for automatically configuring and managing network devices such as broadband routers and virtual private networks.

#Many systems and methods have been created to provide communication between individual computers of a centralized, single site organization through a private network. Computers may be interconnected through telephone lines, coaxial cables, optical fibers, radio or microwave communication links, earth-orbiting satellites, or other means. Such communications can include electronic mail, file sharing and transferring, and database sharing.

#A further understanding of the present invention can be obtained by reference to the embodiments set forth in the illustrations of the accompanying drawings. Although the illustrated embodiments are exemplary of systems for carrying out the present invention, both the organization and method of operation of the invention, in general, together with further objectives and advantages thereof, may be more easily understood by reference to the drawings and the following description. The drawings are not intended to limit the scope of this invention, which is set forth with particularity in the claims as appended or as subsequently amended, but merely to clarify and exemplify the invention.

#FIG. 1 depicts a schematic view of a network environment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention including, inter alia, a management center, management portal, firewall, master server, regional servers, the Internet, a router, network connections, network devices, local networks, and local network devices.

#FIG. 2 depicts a schematic view of one embodiment of a VPN created using the systems and methods of the present invention including, inter alia, the Internet, a router, network connections, network devices, local networks, and local network devices.

#Referring first to FIG. 1, depicted is network environment 100 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, network environment 100 includes management center 102, management portal 104, firewall 106, master server 108, management servers 110, Internet 112, router 114, network connections 116, network devices 118, local networks 120, and local network devices 122.

#In one embodiment of the present invention, network device 118 is a broadband device such as a cable or Digital Subscriber Line (“DSL”) modem having one or more features such as wireless gateways (e.g., an 802.11 gateway, a Bluetooth® gateway, an Infrared Data Association (“IrDA”) gateway, etc.), voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”), multi-port switching, VPN, firewalls, anti-virus protection, spam control, content filtering, etc. However, the present invention is not so limited. Network device may be virtually any device having a network connection to at least one other network device regardless of its features.

#Managed network devices 118 may be incorporated in some embodiments of the present invention. In these embodiments, network devices 118 are managed and maintained remotely. That is, maintenance functions such as updates to virus definitions, block lists, policies, and firmware are performed from a remote management center such as management center 102 and its associated management portal 104, master server 108, and management servers 110a-110b, via a network connected to both management center 102 and the managed network device 118 (e.g., Internet 112).