Patent ID: 8577955

Claim:
A method for communicating between a server computer system and at least one client system for image distribution, the method comprising: receiving, at the server computer system, at least one first heartbeat communication from the at least one client system, wherein each at least one first heartbeat communication includes client status information; and in response to receiving the at least one first heartbeat communication from the at least one client system, selecting, by the server computer system, a response to send to the at least one client system, wherein the selected response corresponds to one of take no action, send information, retrieve information, and execute a command; designating a state of the at least one client system in accordance with the selected response; sending, by the server computer system, the selected response to the at least one client system; and in response to receiving at least one second heartbeat communication from the at least one client system, wherein each at least one second heartbeat communication includes client status information, confirming whether the client status information included in the at least one second heartbeat communication corresponds to the state of the at least one client system.