Patent ID: 8200769

Claim:
A method for downloading a plug-in for an Instant Messaging (IM) client, comprising: receiving a request for the plug-in from a user of the IM client; detecting a directly accessible peer client that is currently online; sending a plug-in download request to the directly accessible peer client; in the event that the plug-in is received from the directly accessible peer client, installing the plug-in on the IM client; wherein: the plug-in download request comprises a plug-in name and version information; and after receiving a request for the plug-in from the user of the IM client, the method further comprises: transmitting the plug-in name and version information to an IM server; and receiving a plug-in signature message from the IM server, the plug-in signature message being generated based at least in part on the plug-in name and the version information; sending the plug-in name, the version information, and the plug-in signature message to the directly accessible peer client for comparison with locally stored plug-in signature messages on the directly accessible peer client.