Network and interface selection on a computing device capable of establishing connections via multiple network communications media

A method for selecting a network and interface combination, to which a computing system will initiate a connection via the network interface, the method comprising:

• accumulating network interface information spanning multiple communication media, the accumulated network interface information being associated with a set of networks and a set of network interfaces, each network interface for connecting the computing system to a network in the set of networks;
• designating one of the set of networks by applying a network selection criterion to the accumulated network interface information;
• acquiring network interface information pertaining to network interfaces associated with particular media types, the network interface information acquired from media specific drivers associated with particular interfaces;
• receiving network interface configuration commands to connect to one of the set of networks;
• converting standardized communication requests into media specific communications that meet media specific implementation requirements;
• and
• directing the media specific communications to respective network interfaces.

A method comprising:

• using a plurality of media specific drivers to obtain network interface status/capabilities information from individual, respective associated network interface cards;
• operating a rules engine to:
• obtain the network interface status/capabilities information from the individual media specific drivers,
• cause the network interface status/capabilities information to be stored in a rule store,
• access network and interface selection rules spanning multiple communication media from the rule store,
• apply an order of precedence to sources of rules, and
• apply a set of selection rules to accumulated network interface status/capabilities information to make network and interface selection decisions;
• using an application program interface to enable access to the network interface status/capabilities information to one or more applications, one or more provisioning services, one or more group-policy services, or a user interface;
• operating a set of media specific modules to support automatic network and interface selection, under the influence of the rules engine, relating to particular media types, individual media specific modules being configured to receive, from the rules engine, network interface configuration commands to connect to a particular network or networks;
• and
• operating a media specific module interface to enable communication between the media specific modules and the rules engine, the media specific module interface including a normalization module to facilitate communication standardization between the rules engine and different types of the media specific modules.