Patent ID: 7873736

Claim:
A method of enabling a user to access a network service, an access resource being required to access said network service, said method being performed in a network access server (NAS), said method comprising: checking in said NAS a status of availability of said access resource; determining in said NAS whether to send a notification of said status to a client system from which said user is accessing said network service; creating in said NAS a packet containing said notification of said status if said determining determines to send said notification, wherein access to the network service is determined by identifying a quota related to the access resource indicated by a server, and wherein the notification is triggered by the access resource being below a pre-specified threshold, wherein the network service is associated with video data being sent to the client system, and wherein the notification is sent after the video data has already begun propagating to the client system; sending said packet from said NAS to said client system indicating said status to said user, wherein the notification includes a time remaining estimation for quota that is based on an expected rate of usage by the client system, and wherein the status is delivered and rendered to the client system without executing a web browser; wherein said NAS sends said packet on a session established between said client system and said NAS; wherein said determining comprises: maintaining an available quota for said user based on usage of said access resource by said user, wherein said maintaining is also performed in said NAS, wherein said packet containing said notification is sent to said client system on said session if said available quota is below a threshold; and updating said server indicating an amount of said access resource depleted by said user while accessing said network service such that said server can compute a remaining available amount of said access resource, wherein said remaining available amount represents a quota of said access resource for said user less said amount of said access resource depleted by said user.