US 2006/0224623 A1Published application

Computer status monitoring and support

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsBradley Graziadio, Ganesh Pandey, Douglas Cavit

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A root silo that authorizes one or more clients to access one or more services at one or more servicing silos receives a request from a client for interaction with a service. The root silo identifies a servicing silo as an available provider of the service for interacting with the client and generates a servicing certificate that contains (i) service entitlement information showing that the client is entitled to interact with the service at the servicing silo, (ii) location information identifying a location of the servicing silo, and (iii) one or more keys for use in secure communication between the client and the servicing silo. Having generated the servicing certificate, the root silo sends the servicing certificate to the client for the client to use when interacting with the service at the servicing silo.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer program product for a distributed computer system comprising one or more clients, one or more support contacts that provide technical support to the one or more clients, and a support service that communicates information between the one or more clients and the one or more support contacts, the computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media with computer executable instructions that implement a method of monitoring operation of a client for use in providing technical support to the client, the method comprising the client performing acts of:

sending registration information to the support service for registering a user as a subscriber with the support service for the client;
identifying a support contact to the support service;
tracking one or more support parameters;
uploading the one or more support parameters to the support service for analysis and distribution to the support contact;
receiving support data from the support service, the support data including one or more support actions having been determined by the support contact based on the one or more support parameters uploaded to the support service;
and
taking the one or more support actions included in the support data.

4 more elements

A computer program product for a distributed computer system comprising one or more client subscribers, one or more support contacts that provide technical support to the one or more clients, and a support service that communicates information between the one or more client subscribers and the one or more support contacts, the computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media with computer executable instructions that implement a method of tracking one or more support parameters for use in providing technical support to a client subscriber, the method comprising the support service performing steps for:

registering a user as a subscriber with the support service for a client;
associating one or more support contacts with the subscriber, the one or more support contacts having been identified by the subscriber;
accumulating one or more support parameters from the client;
providing the one or more support parameters to the one or more support contacts;
accumulating one or more support actions from the one or more support contacts in response to the one or more support parameters;
generating support data that includes the one or more support actions;
and
providing the support data to the client.

5 more elements

For distributed computer system comprising a plurality of clients, one or more support contacts that provide technical support to the plurality of clients, and one or more support services that communicate information between the plurality of clients and the one or more support contacts, a support service comprising:

a network interface for communicating with the one or more clients and the one or more support contacts;
one or more computer readable media with computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions comprising:
computer executable instructions for registering a user as a subscriber with the support service for a client;
computer executable instructions for assigning one or more support contacts to the subscriber;
computer executable instructions for receiving one or more support parameters from the client;
computer executable instructions for sending the one or more support parameters to the one or more support contacts;
computer executable instructions for receiving one or more support actions from the one or more support contacts based on the one or more support parameters;
and
computer executable instructions for sending the one or more support actions to the client;
and
a processing unit coupled to the network connection and the one or more computer readable media for sending and receiving data over the network connection and for executing the computer executable instructions.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.