Method and appartus for monitor and notification in a network

Abstract

A user specifies one or more monitoring/probing rules on a client station. These rules specify user instructions for monitoring and probing conditions, events and data on monitored sites on the Internet. The client station transfers the monitor/probing rules to the monitoring site which also processes and interprets the monitoring/probing rules. When the monitoring site processes these rules, it results in (1) an allocation of space and (2) the creation or initialization of agent programs, such that these agent programs will affect periodic monitoring of Internet sites and send data therefrom back to monitoring site. If the retrieved information at the monitoring site satisfies the user specified conditions, the monitoring site will conduct further exploration to gather more information which may help determine the causes of these conditions. The results of such a probe may be obtained from the monitoring site or the Internet, and are communicated by the monitoring site to the client station for display on a display device.