Patent ID: 8606868

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: determining, by e-mail clients, that an e-mail outage has occurred based on non-receipt of a periodic status notification expected by said e-mail clients from an associated e-mail computer server; when said e-mail clients determine that said e-mail outage has occurred, said e-mail clients provide a notice of said e-mail outage on a graphic user interface of said e-mail clients and activate a program of instructions; when said program of instructions is active and said e-mail clients receive an e-mail message from said e-mail computer server, said program of instructions causes said e-mail clients to provide an indication of e-mail receipt to said e-mail computer server thereby allowing said e-mail computer server to learn which corrective actions restored most e-mail clients most quickly; when said e-mail computer server receives said indication of e-mail receipt, said e-mail computer server provides said periodic status notification to said e-mail clients; and when said e-mail clients receive said periodic status notification, said e-mail clients provide a notice that said e-mail outage has ended on said graphic user interface and deactivate said program of instructions.