Computer health check method

• US 20060112314A1
• Filed: 11/10/2004
• Published: 05/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Earthlink Managed Services, LLC
• Original Assignee: Earthlink Managed Services, LLC
• Inventors: Soto, Carlos
• Application Number:
  US10/985,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20060112314A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test

Abstract

A method for providing maintenance services to client computers is disclosed, in which a health check software application periodically runs in each client computer to obtain health information of each client computer and then automatically transmits the obtained health information to a remote service provider for monitoring and diagnosing the client computers.

Claims

1. A method for maintaining a client computer, comprising:

periodically running a health check software application on the client computer to obtain health information of said client computer; and

automatically transmitting said health information to a service provider for diagnosing said client computer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring, at said service provider, health situation of said client computer based on said health information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said service provider is remotely located from said client computer and communicates with said client computer over a data connection.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said health information is transmitted to said service provider over said data connection.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising backing up said health information at said service provider.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising updating said backed up health information at said service provider upon receiving most recent health information from said client computer.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein said service provider also provides service of backing up configuration information of said client computer.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising changing said backed up configuration information based on result of said diagnosing.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said health information comprises information about at least one of following:

operating system, versions of software, when said health information was obtained last time, spyware, bug patches, system resources, network connections, security, and registry of said client computer.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein health information comprises information about version of anti-virus software.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said health information further comprises when a definition of virus was last updated for said anti-virus software.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said system resources comprises at least one of following:

motherboards, CPU, memory, graphic card, sound card, storage disks.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said information comprises information about availability of said system resources.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said information comprises information about drivers of said system resources.

15. A system for maintaining a plurality of client computers, comprising:

a server for providing maintenance services to said client computers; and

a health check software application configured to periodically run on each of said client computers to obtain health information of said each client computer and to automatically transmit said obtained health information to said server.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said services comprising diagnosing said client computers based on said obtained health information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said server is remotely located from said client computers and communicates with said client computers over a data connection.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein said server comprises means for backing up said obtained health information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said server further comprises means for backing up configuration information of said client computers.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein said server further comprises means for altering said backed up configuration information based on a result of said diagnosing.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein said health information comprises information about at least one of following:

operating system, versions of software, when said health information was obtained last time, spyware, bug patches, system resources, network connections, security, and registry of said client computer.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein said health information further comprises information about version of anti-virus software and when a definition of virus was last updated for said anti-virus software.