JP2002073840A - Network server rental system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a network server rental system for renting a part of a memory range possessed by a server connected to a network as demanded by a customer. SOLUTION: This network server rental system is composed of the network as a server connected to the server management center terminal, and a user terminal connected to the network. The server management center terminal provides a server rental contracting means to provide server rental information for renting the memory range possessed by the server to the network, and rent the memory range possessed by the server corresponding to rental demanding information when the user terminal gets access to the server rental information to transmit the rental demanding information to the server management center terminal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network server lending system, and more particularly to a network server lending system capable of leasing a part of a storage area held by a server connected to a network in response to a request from a contractor. Regarding the lending system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the spread of the Internet, personal computers, digital home appliances, and the like, digital data generated therefrom can be stored and stored personally, transmitted and received by e-mail, or published on a homepage. And so on.

As shown in FIG. 5, video data personally shot with a digital camera or digital video, character data and image data created by a personal computer are stored in a user terminal 110 composed of a personal computer or the like. CD (Compact Disk) stored in the device or connected to the user terminal 110
Storage medium 15 such as FD or Floppy Disk (FD)
0 is stored. Then, when sharing these digital data among friends or the like, the digital data is posted on its own homepage on the network 200 and made public, or the user terminal 1
Between the network 10 and another user terminal 120
For example, transmission / reception by e-mail via the Internet is performed. In some cases, the storage medium 150 itself is exchanged among friends.

[0004]

In the conventional digital data storage method described above, it is difficult for an individual to have a server or the like having a large-capacity storage area for backing up data. There is a risk that important data will be lost due to computer failure, virus invasion, etc.

[0005] When sharing large-volume data among friends or the like, when using a homepage or using an e-mail, there is a case where the data cannot be posted on the homepage or an e-mail cannot be transmitted due to the capacity limit being exceeded. There is a disadvantage that. In order to solve such a situation, there is a method of exchanging the storage medium 150 itself among friends.
There is a disadvantage that a long time is required because a large number of 50 must be copied, and a drive that can drive the storage medium 150 must be commonly connected to the user terminal 100 and other user terminals 120. are doing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to change a part of a storage area held by a server connected to a network in response to a request from a contractor. It is an object of the present invention to provide a network server lending system capable of lending by lending.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a network server lending system comprising: a network as a communication network; a server management center terminal connected to the network; a server connected to the server management center terminal; A network server lending system comprising a user terminal connected to a network, wherein the server management center terminal provides server rental information for renting a storage area held by the server on the network, When a user terminal accesses the server rental information and transmits desired rental information to the server management center terminal, the server terminal includes a server lease contract unit that leases a storage area held by the server according to the desired rental information. It is characterized by.

[0008] Further, the server management center terminal provides the server rental information and the user terminal transmits the rental request information using a homepage on the Internet.

Further, the rental request information transmitted from the user terminal to the server management center terminal is composed of contract information and payment information, and the contract information includes a desired period desired by a user using the user terminal. And the server lease contract means of the server management center terminal receiving the rental request information, rents a storage area held by the server according to a desired period and a desired capacity desired by the user. It is characterized by entering into a contract.

The rental request information transmitted by the user terminal to the server management center terminal includes contract information and payment information, and the payment information includes a credit card number of a user who uses the user terminal. The server leasing contract means of the server management center terminal which has received the rental request information includes at least a credit contract fee charged to a card company by the credit information.

Further, when the user terminal transmits the rental request information to the server management center terminal, the server lease contract means of the server management center terminal receiving the rental request information uses the user terminal. A user ID and a password are generated as user identification information for uniquely identifying a user who makes a lease, and when the user uses a storage area held by the rented server, the user identifies the user by using the user identification information. By inputting a user ID and a password as information from the user terminal, the user can use a storage area held by the leased server.

[0012] The server management center terminal may include the rental request information transmitted from the user terminal and user identification information generated by the server lease contract means for uniquely identifying a user who uses the user terminal. And a user information storage means for storing and managing the user ID and password of the user.

Further, the user terminal has access means for accessing the server lease information provided on the network by the server management center terminal and transmitting the lease desire information to the server management center terminal. It is characterized by the following.

[0014]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a network server lending system of the present invention.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a user terminal 10 used by a user who is a contractor of the present system, a server 30 owned by a server administrator, and management of the server 30 by the server administrator. Server management center terminal 20 that performs
And a network 100 as a communication network, such as the Internet, for interconnecting them.

The user terminal 10 is composed of an information processing device such as a personal computer, and has access means for accessing server rental information provided by the server management center terminal 20 on the network 100 and displaying the server rental information on a screen. 11 is provided. The server lease information is, for example, information such as the storage capacity of the storage area held by the server 30, the lease period, and the rental fee, and includes information such as a method of accessing the storage area. The access unit 11 further has a function of transmitting the rental request information desired by the contractor user to the server management center terminal 20 via the network 100.

The server management center terminal 20 is a terminal device used by a server administrator, and is constituted by an information processing device such as a workstation server. The server management center terminal 20 checks the free space of the storage area held by the server 30 and sends the server lease information to the network 100.
In addition to receiving the rental request information transmitted by the user terminal 10 by the operation of the user who is a contractor of the present system, generates the user identification information and concludes the lease contract of the server 30 with the user. Server lease contract means 21
And a user information storage unit 22 for storing and managing user information including user identification information of a user who has concluded a lease contract with the server 30. The user information is information for identifying the relationship between the user and the user identification information and the storage area of the server 30 rented to the user, and is generated as information unique to each user.

The server 30 is used by a server administrator and a user, and is constituted by an information processing device of a workstation server. The server 30 includes a storage unit 31 that is a storage area to be rented to a user, and a backup storage unit 32 that stores and stores a backup of the storage unit 31.

The storage area of the storage means 31 of the server 30 is a storage area used by a user determined for each area. The storage contents of the storage means 31 are backed up at regular intervals, and the backup storage means 32
Will be saved and stored.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. In the following description, it is assumed that the network 100 is the Internet, and a case will be described in which the present embodiment is implemented using a homepage on the Internet.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an outline of the operation of this embodiment.

First, the server lease contract means 21 of the server management center terminal 20 sets up a server rental homepage on the Internet.

A user who is a contractor of this system accesses a server rental homepage established on the Internet by a server administrator via his / her own user terminal 10 (step A1). In response, the server lease contract means 21 of the server management center terminal 20 transmits server lease information and payment information to the user terminal 10 (step A2).

The server rental information as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed on the screen of the user terminal 10 (step A3).

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of server lease information.

FIG. 3 shows the lease period (B1) of the server and the corresponding storage area capacity (B2) and rental fee (B3) of the server 30 for each contract type. For example, contract type 1. Column indicates that the rental fee of the capacity xxMB is xxx yen corresponding to the rental period of xx days.

The user who is the contractor refers to the server lease information displayed on the screen of the user terminal 10, determines the contract type, and registers on the screen that he wants to make a lease contract (step A4). In the example of FIG. Is clicked with a mouse, the corresponding item is marked with an X (B4), and the contract type 3. Will be registered.
In the example of FIG. 3, the user selects and registers the contract type. For the rental period (B1) and the storage area capacity (B2), the user inputs the desired period and the desired capacity. May be registered. The information of the contract type thus registered is temporarily stored as the contract information in the user terminal 1.
Stored at zero.

Next, when the contractor clicks the "pay" button (B5) on the screen of FIG.
0 displays a payment information registration screen as shown in FIG. 4 (step A5).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a payment information registration screen.

FIG. 4 shows credit information (C1) for registering a credit card number for paying a rental fee, and personal information (C2) for registering a subscriber's e-mail address, address, name, telephone number and the like. ) Is displayed.

When the contractor enters the payment information registration screen,
When personal information such as a credit card number such as credit information, an e-mail address, an address, a name, and a telephone number is registered (step A6), the registered credit information and personal information are temporarily stored in the user terminal 10 as payment information. Can be

The contract information and the payment information stored in the user terminal 10 are converted into rental request information by clicking the "contract" button (C3) on the payment information registration screen of FIG. 4 with the mouse. It is transmitted to the server management center terminal 20 (step A7).

When the server lease contract means 21 of the server management center terminal 20 receives the contract information and the payment information as the rental request information transmitted from the user terminal 10 (step A8), the server lease contract means 21 indicates the contract type in the contract information. A storage area of the specified capacity is secured in the storage unit 31 of the server 30 (step A9), and a user ID and a password as user identification information for uniquely identifying a contractor are generated (step A10). The contract information, the payment information, and the user ID and password as the generated user identification information,
It is stored and stored in the user information storage means 22 of the server management center terminal 20. Also, the server management center terminal 20
Server lease contract means 21 bills the card company for a rental contract fee based on the credit information in the payment information. Therefore, the user who is a contractor can immediately use the storage area of the server 30 with which the lease contract has been concluded. Then, the generated user ID and password as user identification information, the contract information and the use start date are transmitted to the user terminal 10 (step A11). User I
The D, the password, the contract information, and the use start date may be confirmed by the contractor on the server administrator's homepage, or may be notified to the contractor by e-mail or the like.

The contractor enters the user ID and password transmitted in step A11 into the user terminal 10 at any time after the use start date transmitted in step A11, and transmits it to the server management center terminal 20. (Step A12).

When the server management center terminal 20 receives the user ID and the password transmitted from the user terminal 10, the server management center terminal 20 compares the user ID and the password as the user identification information stored in the user information storage means 22 with the user ID and the password. It is determined whether or not it is (Step A13). If the user identification information matches and the user is identified as a contractor, the folder in the storage area secured on the storage means 31 of the server 30 is delivered to the contractor. Can be used (step A14).

The operation from step A12 to step A14 is performed when the user who is the contractor
This is performed each time the contracted folder secured above is used. Therefore, the user who is the contractor can use the contracted folder at any time by inputting the user ID and the password from the user terminal 10.

[0038]

As described above, according to the network server lending system of the present invention, a user who is a contractor of the present system leases a storage area held by a server connected to a network for a period and a capacity desired to use. Since it is possible to temporarily store digital data of a user in a server and access the server from a user terminal connected to a network to transfer the digital data to a file, the digital data can be temporarily used. ing.

Further, when personally storing large digital data, it is possible to reduce the burden on a user terminal having a small storage capacity by storing it in a storage area of a server connected to a network. ing.

Further, information that cannot be shared on the Internet homepage due to a capacity problem is stored in a server connected to the network, so that the user who is a contractor of the present system is limited to those who are in the group. Notifying the user of the user ID and password has the effect that the information can be shared only by people within the group.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a network server lending system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation outline of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen of server lease information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a payment information registration screen.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a conventional digital data storage method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 User terminal 11 Access means 20 Server management center terminal 21 Server lease contract means 22 User information storage means 30 Server 31 Storage means 32 Backup storage means 100 Network 110 User terminal 120 Other user terminals 150 Storage medium 200 Network

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A network comprising a network as a communication network, a server management center terminal connected to the network, a server connected to the server management center terminal, and a user terminal connected to the network. In the server lending system, the server management center terminal provides server lease information for renting a storage area held by the server on the network, and the user terminal accesses the server lease information to request a lease. A network server lending system, comprising: server lease contract means for renting a storage area held by the server according to the rental request information when information is transmitted to the server management center terminal. 2. The network server lending system according to claim 1, wherein the server management center terminal provides the server rental information and the user terminal transmits the rental request information using a homepage on the Internet. A network server lending system characterized by being performed. 3. The rental request information transmitted by the user terminal to the server management center terminal includes contract information and payment information, and the contract information includes a desired period desired by a user using the user terminal. And the server lease contract means of the server management center terminal receiving the rental request information, rents a storage area held by the server according to a desired period and a desired capacity desired by the user. The network server lending system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a contract is concluded. 4. The rental request information transmitted from the user terminal to the server management center terminal includes contract information and payment information, and the payment information includes a credit card number of a user using the user terminal. 2. The server lease contract means of the server management center terminal which receives at least the rental request information includes at least credit information comprising: Claim 3
The network server lending system according to any one of the above items. 5. When the user terminal transmits the rental request information to the server management center terminal, the server lease contract means of the server management center terminal receiving the rental request information uses the user terminal. I as user identification information for uniquely identifying a user
D and a password are generated, and when the user uses the storage area held by the leased server,
The user inputs a user ID and a password as the user identification information from the user terminal,
5. The network server lending system according to claim 1, wherein the user can use a storage area held by the server for which a lease contract has been made. 6. 6. The server management center terminal as the rental request information transmitted from the user terminal and user identification information generated by the server rental contract means for uniquely identifying a user who uses the user terminal. The network server lending system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a user information storage unit that stores and manages the user ID and the password. 7. The user terminal has access means for accessing the server lease information provided on the network by the server management center terminal and transmitting the lease desire information to the server management center terminal. The network server lending system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein: