AN APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING A PROGRAM NEIGHBORHOOD FOR A CLIENT NODE IN A CLIENT-SERVER NETWORK

An apparatus and method for determining a program neighborhood of a client node in a client-server network is described. The program neighborhood of the client node includes application programs hosted by application servers on the network. The present invention enables a user of a client node to learn of these application programs. The user is not required to know where to find such applications or to manually establish links to such applications. To make the client node aware of its program neighborhood, a host server collects application-related information corresponding to application programs hosted by the servers in the network. The application-related information can include the application name, the server location of the application, minimum capabilities required of client nodes for executing the application, and those users who are authorized to use that application. User credentials are received from the client system. The user credentials are used to filter the application-related information. Information representing those application programs that are available to the client node is transmitted from the host server to the client system for display. In a Windows-based client node, the information can be represented by a graphical icon for each available application program.