Patent ID: 8862745

Claim:
A method for managing access to shared resources, the method comprising: one or more processors receiving user input from a user for accessing a shared resource, the user input including a user identification of the user and an address of the shared resource on a data processing system on a computer network; and responsive to receiving the user input, the one or more processors generating and presenting to the user, on a computer display, real-time information updates about the progress of each of a plurality of steps taken in the computer network to provide access to the shared resource wherein the plurality of steps include a first step for checking and repairing the address of the shared resource to identify the data processing system, a second step for checking the data processing system to determine whether the data processing system is responding, a third step for checking whether the user identification corresponds to an existing open account by querying a network domain controller to confirm whether the user identification corresponds to the existing open account, and a fourth step for automatically mapping the shared resource for use by the user when the data processing system is determined to be responding and the user identification of the user is determined to correspond to the existing open account.