Patent ID: 7216164

Claim:
In a data communications device, a method for determining the performance of a server, connected with a client, comprising the steps of: monitoring a connection characteristic of a connection between the server and the client; detecting a variance in the connection characteristic relative to a preferred connection characteristic; and determining the performance of the server based upon the variance in the connection characteristic; wherein the connection is a Transmission Control Protocol connection and wherein the step of monitoring comprises monitoring a Transmission Control Protocol window size from the server; and wherein the step of monitoring further comprises: receiving a series of Transmission Control Protocol window sizes transmitted from the server; determining a trend for the Transmission Control Protocol window size of the server based upon the window sizes transmitted from the server; and setting a preferred Transmission Control Protocol window size for the server based upon the trend for the window size; wherein determining the trend includes comparing the connection characteristic of the connection over multiple successive communication transaction cycles between the server to the client to identify when the performance of the server increases as indicated by most recently received connection characteristics being nearer in value to the preferred connection characteristic, the connection characteristic being a window size generated by the server and sent to the client for purposes of limiting an amount of data sent by the client to the server.