Abstract: What is disclosed is a method having the first step of receiving, on a routing manager port address, a set of accounting request packets from a network access server having a network access server port address. Then, parsing the accounting request packet to derive a command flag and forwarding the set of accounting request packets to an authentication server, having an authentication server port address, over the authentication server port address. The method includes the further step of generating a set of routing table modification commands for a network router based on the command flag. What is also disclosed is an apparatus having a network access server, an authentication server coupled to the network access server, and a routing manager coupled to the network access server and the authentication server. The network access server has a network access server port address, the authentication server has an authentication server port address, and the routing manager has a routing manager port address.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for monitoring application program execution time in a computer system having an operating system which controls execution of one or more application programs, with each application program including an executable task and one or more executable subtasks. The method includes detecting initiation of a first-executed task associated with an application program, determining a current system time corresponding to that initiation, and setting a starting time for the application program to the current system time. The method also includes detecting termination of a last-executed task or subtask associated with the application program, determining a current system time corresponding to that termination, and setting a final ending time for the application to the current system time.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for monitoring application program usage in a computer system having an operating system which controls execution of one or more application programs, with each application program consisting of an executable task and one or more executable subtasks. The method includes the steps of detecting an executable task or subtask executing under the operating system, identifying an application program associated with the executable task or subtask, and tracking information relating to execution of the task or subtask in a manner that does not interfere with their execution.