Patent ID: 8190685

Claim:
A method for remotely monitoring a software application in a packet-switching network comprising: registering the software application by a monitoring application as a first communication partner in a list of communication partners accessible in the network, the software application residing on a first computing machine on a server side of the network; registering a presence application in the list as a second communication partner which monitors the first communication partner, the presence application residing on a second computing machine, the second computing machine an end user device; transmitting information identifying the software application to be monitored to the first computing machine, the information including a name of the software application; remotely monitoring the software application by the registered presence application; and transmitting a state of the software application to the presence application as a message transmitted from the first communication partner, wherein the monitoring is carried out on the basis of the message, and wherein the state of the software application is displayed by the second computing machine as part of a buddy list.