System and method for secure communications with a remote software program
View Patent ↗In one embodiment of the present invention, a messaging program at a remote computer can send a first message to a portal computer according to a one-way protocol such as HTTP. A portal program at the portal computer can receive the first message and determine if information should be sent to the portal computer. If so, the portal computer can generate a reply message that includes the information and send the reply message to remote computer on the same connection over which the first message was received. In this manner, the portal computer can send configuration control information and other information to the messaging program without requiring leased lines, dial-up connections or a VPN. Moreover, since the communication according to the one-way protocol was initiated at the remote computer, a firewall will allow the remote computer to receive the reply message.
1. A system for the communication of information to a remote software program comprising a set of software instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium and executable by a computer processor to:
receive a request comprising monitoring data, from a remote computer, wherein the request adheres to a one-way protocol, wherein the monitoring data comprises information collected from one or more of a set of networked computers in communication with a remote software agent executing at the remote computer, and wherein the monitoring data is formatted according to the one-way protocol, is transmitted with the request, wherein a connection between the remote computer and a portal computer is established by the remote agent on the remote computer;
determine, at the portal computer, if configuration control information should be sent to the remote agent on the remote computer based on the monitoring data received from the remote agent on the remote computer;
compose, at the portal computer, a response according to the one-way protocol, wherein, if the portal computer determines that configuration control information should be sent to the remote software agent on the remote computer, the response includes configuration control information for configuring the remote software agent on the remote computer;
send the response from the portal computer, to the remote agent on the remote computer according to the one-way protocol over the connection; and
close the connection, by the portal computer, after the response is sent to the remote agent on the remote computer, wherein the remote agent on the remote computer is operable to extract the configuration control information from the response and configure the remote software agent based on the configuration control information sent by the portal computer.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the remote software agent monitors the set of networked computers based on a set of configuration control information.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the configuration control information is altered based on the monitoring data received in the response and the remote software agent monitors the set of networked computers based on the altered configuration control information.
4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the set of configuration control information comprises a collection schedule or a reporting schedule.
5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the set of configuration control information is operable to configure the remote software agent to process the information collected from one or more of the set of networked computers.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the request comprises the processed information.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein said one-way protocol is one of HTTP or HTTPS.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein said remote software agent is a remote monitoring agent.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein said request is one of a data message, a heartbeat message or a status message.
10. The system of claim 7 , wherein said request is communicated over a commonly open port in a firewall.
11. The system of claim 7 , wherein said remote software agent is operable to communicate a heartbeat message according to said one-way protocol on a predetermined schedule and wherein said reply message is sent in accordance with said one-way protocol to said remote software program in response to said heartbeat message.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein said remote software agent is further operable to increase a frequency of subsequent heartbeat messages according to said configuration control information contained in said reply message.
13. The system of claim 7 , wherein the request is sent according to a predefined schedule.