Method and apparatus for tracing troubleshooting events for aiding technical assistance
First Claim
1. A method of providing event information to a technical assistance specialist, comprising:
- recording one or more events that occur in a first computing device associated with a user in an event log;
uploading the event log to a server;
retrieving, by a second computing device associated with the technical assistance specialist, the event log from the server; and
analyzing the event log to determine a probable source of technical difficulty, wherein analyzing the event log includes one or more of;
determining if there are any error events in the event log and identifying a probable source of the error event based on a type of error event present in the event log; and
comparing one or more event patterns to a sequence of one or more events in the event log, determining if an event pattern of the one or more event patterns matches the sequence of one or more events in the event log, and identifying a probable source of technical difficulty based on the event pattern if the event pattern matches the sequence of one or more events in the event log.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for tracing troubleshooting events for aiding technical assistance personnel are provided. With the method and apparatus, a user initiates a technical assistance tracing mechanism on his/her client device. The technical assistance tracing mechanism includes event listeners that are registered with the operating system of the client device. These event listeners are notified when, for example, an input device event occurs, when a graphical user interface event occurs, and the like. These events are recorded by the technical assistance tracing mechanism of the present invention as a log of events. This log of events may then be provided to a computing device which is being used by the technical assistance specialist for use in diagnosing and curing the problems encountered by the user. An automated tool may be provided for analyzing the event log and/or emulating an operating system environment so that the event log may be replayed in a graphical manner.
126 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of providing event information to a technical assistance specialist, comprising:
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recording one or more events that occur in a first computing device associated with a user in an event log;
uploading the event log to a server;
retrieving, by a second computing device associated with the technical assistance specialist, the event log from the server; and
analyzing the event log to determine a probable source of technical difficulty, wherein analyzing the event log includes one or more of;
determining if there are any error events in the event log and identifying a probable source of the error event based on a type of error event present in the event log; and
comparing one or more event patterns to a sequence of one or more events in the event log, determining if an event pattern of the one or more event patterns matches the sequence of one or more events in the event log, and identifying a probable source of technical difficulty based on the event pattern if the event pattern matches the sequence of one or more events in the event log. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for providing event information to a technical assistance specialist, comprising:
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a client device;
a server coupled to the client device via at least one network; and
a technical assistance specialist computing device coupled to the server via the at least one network, wherein the client device records one or more events that occur in an event log and uploads the event log to the server, and wherein the technical assistance specialist computing device retrieves the event log from the server and analyzes the event log to determine a probable source of technical difficulty in the client device. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for providing event information to a technical assistance specialist, comprising:
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first instructions for recording one or more events that occur in a first computing device associated with a user in an event log;
second instructions for uploading the event log to a server;
third instructions for retrieving, by a second computing device associated with the technical assistance specialist, the event log from the server; and
fourth instructions for analyzing the event log to determine a probable source of technical difficulty, wherein the fourth instructions for analyzing the event log include one or more of;
instructions for determining if there are any error events in the event log and identifying a probable source of the error event based on a type of error event present in the event log; and
instructions for comparing one or more event patterns to a sequence of one or more events in the event log, determining if an event pattern of the one or more event patterns matches the sequence of one or more events in the event log, and identifying a probable source of technical difficulty based on the event pattern if the event pattern matches the sequence of one or more events in the event log. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification