Patent ID: 8504680

Claim:
A method for automatically adjusting polling intervals by a server computer performing remote administrative activity on a managed client computer, the method comprising the steps of: receiving polling inquiries at a server computer from managed client computers according to a first polling interval, a polling inquiry allowing remote administrative activity to be executed by the server computer on a managed client computer; detecting an indication of a change in status on the managed client computer from the server computer, wherein the change in status will cause a change in a level of actual remote administrative activity performed by the server computer on at least one of a plurality of managed client computers; in response to detecting the indication of a change in the level of actual remote administrative activity, automatically calculating a second polling interval for polling inquiries correlating to the level of actual remote administrative activity, by the server computer, the second polling interval to be used by the at least one of the plurality of managed client computers, comprising: in response to detecting an increase in the level of actual remote administrative activity, automatically calculating a decreased polling interval, and in response to detecting a decrease in the level of actual remote administrative activity, automatically calculating an increased polling interval; transmitting the second polling interval to the at least one of the plurality of managed client computers from the server computer; and receiving polling inquiries at the server computer from the at least one of the plurality of managed client computers according to the second polling interval.