Patent ID: 8364780

Claim:
Apparatus to control transfer of a file from a first computer to a second computer, the first computer having a file transfer application instance, comprising: a processor; computer memory holding computer program instructions that when executed by the processor perform a method, the method comprising: establishing and maintaining a connection to the first computer; upon receipt of a request from the first computer, the request associated with a file to be transferred to the second computer, associating a random character string with an identifier associated with the file transfer application instance and data associated with the file; storing the random character string together with the identifier associated with the file transfer application instance and the data associated with the file; providing the random character string to the first computer, the random character string provided over the connection; upon subsequent receipt of a request from the second computer, the request associated with a URL that encodes at least the random character string, de-referencing the URL by extracting the random character string and using it to identify the file and the file transfer application instance; and providing an instruction to the file transfer application instance to enable a transfer of the file from the first computer to the second computer.