Patent ID: 8234701

Claim:
A method of enabling accessing or controlling of at least one target computer connected to a local computer network from at least one remote computer remote from the local computer network, comprising the steps of: (a) the at least one remote computer communicating with a server computer and sending to the server computer a request for the target computer to respond to or act on one or more digital signals, the server computer being linked to a database, and the server computer being operable to store data, receive data, send data, and retrieve data from the database for request processing and authentication of the at least one target computer utilizing the stored target data, or authentication of the remote computer; and (b) the server computer communicating with at least one designated proxy computer located in the local computer network and thereby being linked to the at least one target computer, said at least one proxy computer further being linked to the server computer; (c) the proxy computer sending one or more communications to the server computer so as to establish and maintain, or intermittently re-establish, a communication channel between the proxy computer and the server computer, such communication channel being maintained or intermittently re-established whether the proxy computer is publicly addressable or publicly non-addressable: (d) the server computer enabling one or more digital signals to be sent to the target computer based on the request from the remote computer, via the communication channel between the server computer and the proxy computer; and (e) the proxy computer delivering the one or more digital signals to the at least one target computer; and the target computer acting on the one or more digital signals to perform one or more of the following actions: (i) powering on or powering off the at least one target computer; (ii) waking the at least, one target computer from a sleep mode: or (iii) activating functions or resources of the at least one target computer including functions or resources for launching an application installed on the target computer, accessing data available from the target computer, providing technical support and maintenance, and any other functions or resources of the target computer; such that the at least one remote computer is operable to achieve functional access to, or control of, the at least one target computer.