Anchored vs. Mobile Agents You can classify agents into two groups based on where they reside and where they do their work. Anchored agents do most of their work on either the client side or on the server side. The client utilities from AgentSoft and Autonomy are two examples of this approach. These programs run alongside your browser and automate browser sessions. But they remain more or less anchored on the client's machine.
Mobile agents make up the more sophisticated group and have the most promise.
These agents, which resemble some kind of software robot out of science fiction, can move themselves from server to server to find what they need. They are executing programs that carry their state information with them, making them self-contained. Today, it's natural to think of programs grabbing resources from remote spots on the Web, but to have a program jump to another server is a novel idea.