Patent attributes
A method and apparatus delays users from accessing a service via the world wide web in an orderly manner without maintaining a queue. When a user requests the service, if the service is busy, a web server does not allow access to the service: instead it configures the user's web browser via a script or applet to periodically retry requesting the service. A timestamp designating a time the user requested the service or other similar time is provided to the user and a count of timestamps issued in different periods are maintained by the web server. The web server periodically determines a cutoff timestamp corresponding to an available capacity of the apparatus using the count of timestamps it maintains. When the user retries requesting the service, the browser provides to the web server the timestamp it received from the server. If the timestamp provided is less than or equal to the cutoff timestamp, the user is allowed access to the service, otherwise, the users browser is instructed to retry at a specified interval.