Patent ID: 7131123

Claim:
A method for installing software on a hardware device by an agent which resides on the hardware device comprising: a communication network gateway sending a message to an agent residing on the hardware device informing the agent of a command to install software on the hardware device on which it resides; an agent verifying the validity of the message sent to it with the communication network gateway; the communication network gateway transmitting an indication regarding the validity of the command; the agent receiving the command to install software on the hardware device if the indication transmitted from the gateway indicates that the command is valid; the communication network gateway initiating a locking signal regarding using pre-determined resources of the hardware device to execute the command to install software on the hardware device; the agent requesting files from a file server via the communication network gateway required for completion of the received installation command; the file server sending the files required for completion of the received installation command to the agent via the communication network gateway; the agent installing the files sent to it on the hardware device upon which it resides in response to the received installation command; and the communication network gateway removing the locking signal associated with using the pre-determined resources of the hardware device to execute the command to install software in a hardware device after the files have been installed.