Patent ID: 7529838

Claim:
A method of peer-to-peer review between first and second network appliances, the first and second network appliances being connected to an interconnected network, the method comprising: determining the address of the second network appliance using the first network appliance, the address of the second network appliance being associated with the interconnected network; sending a ping message to the second network appliance from the first network appliance through the interconnected network; selectively responding to the ping message from the first network appliance using the second network appliance; establishing a periodicity between the sending of subsequent periodic ping messages based at least in part on information provided to the first network appliance by the second network appliance; and sending subsequent ping messages from the first network appliance to the second network appliance through the interconnected network at time intervals based at least in part on the established periodicity, wherein selectively responding to the ping message includes determining that the second network appliance has adequate resources to establish a peer-to-peer review process.