Method and system for remotely controlling the reporting of events occurring within a computer system

A system for remotely controlling the reporting of one or more types of events occurring within a computer, the system comprising:

• a server computer operative to store a remote control file comprising data identifying one or more events that should be reported when they occur, to receive periodic requests from a client computer for the remote control file, to transmit the remote control file to the client computer in response to the requests, and to receive event reports from the client computer;
• and
• a client computer operative to periodically request and receive the remote control file from the server computer, to determine whether an event has occurred, to consult the remote control file to determine if an event that has occurred should be reported, and to report the event to the server computer in response to determining that the event should be reported wherein the events comprise the occurrence of an alert and an assert being identified across two or more application programs and wherein the data identifying the one or more events that should be reported comprises an alert ID uniquely identifying the alert.