Patent ID: 8015283

Claim:
A method of operating a processing system for cooperative monitoring of peer-to-peer activity on a network, the method comprising: maintaining communication between a local monitoring process and a network monitoring process such that a process can use both network monitoring and local monitoring; monitoring a local peer using local monitoring of a point in the network by monitoring packets passing through the point; monitoring the network using network monitoring by a monitoring system or agent coupled to the network, wherein network monitoring includes the monitoring system or agent using one or more peer-to-peer protocols to collect information on peer-to-peer activity; analyzing the result of network monitoring and local monitoring to determine at least one file transfer association with the local peer, wherein the maintaining communication between a local monitoring process and a network monitoring process includes at least one of step A, step B, and step C, Step A being that the analyzing includes combining a result of network monitoring with a result of local monitoring, Step B being that the local monitoring uses a result of network monitoring, and Step C being that the network monitoring uses a result of local monitoring.