Abstract: A method for supporting the end-user of a software application program is provided, wherein the end-user is provided the capability of communicating directly with the application program vendor and/or developer to request enhancement, provide comments, report defects and/or to ask questions. Moreover, this method provides an automatic communication means for providing the developer of an application program such critical information as usage of program or document information, defects, and user comments. Furthermore, this method provides an automatic communication means for communicating defects, instructions, work-arounds, fixes, upgrade schedules and the like to users. This invention provides a means for communicating that minimizes the load and/or requirements for specially trained customer service personnel while simultaneously decreasing the feed-back lag time, thereby providing information which is sufficiently timely to aid in the improvement of the quality of application software.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for combining writes and avoiding redundant writes are disclosed. Based on values such as overhead message size, largest message size, packet round trip time, cache block size, dirty cache region size and separation, channel throughput, and the identity of cached data values, a write region containing cached data is selected and (if non-empty) is written across the network. Depending on conditions, the selected write region includes either two dirty regions and an intervening clean region or only one dirty region. In the latter case, the other dirty region is flushed by a subsequent write operation. The goals of avoiding network congestion, updating the cache promptly, and utilizing available network bandwidth are balanced according to conditions in the cache and on the network.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for assisting in file recovery after a network fault uses a block state indicator in a client cache. After file data is stored in the client cache, the block state indicator is set to a client-cached state. After the file data is stored in a server cache, the block state indicator is set to a server-cached state. After the file data is stored in a non-volatile store attached to the server, the block state indicator is set to a stored state. If the data in server cache is lost or compromised due to a network fault, the data maintained in client memory is retransmitted. In a similar manner, file locks and file semaphores are re-established after a network fault.