Suggestions?

[Richard Miller]

Looking for suggestions on how to best handle the following scenario.

Imagine a number of computers spread out across the country (some PC's, 
some Mac's) running a custom Rev application. On each computer, the 
application continually (every 30-60 seconds) sends a small file (just 
a few characters) into a central server. This file contains information 
about the availability of the user (available now, within 10 minutes, 
not available). Let's say there are 100 of these computers and 
applications running at any given time, all reporting in every 30 
seconds or so.

I've also got another 100 computers (all Mac's) running a different Rev 
application. Each of these computers needs to know the combined status 
of the first 100 users, continually polling for this data every 30 
seconds. So, for example, at any given moment it knows:

User 1 is available now
User 2 is not available
User 3 is not available,
User 4 will be available in 10 minutes
etc..

I've got a dedicated Mac server available, on which I want to place a 
Rev application to gather and disseminate the required information. The 
first 100 computers will continually inform that central application of 
their status, and the other 100 will continually ask this application 
for the status of the first 100 users.

Suggestions on how to do this. I've quite a number of ideas, but I'm 
not sure of the fastest and most stable (and perhaps easiest) way. One 
concern is with multiple users (the ones supplying data) trying to 
check in at the same time.

Thanks for any thoughts.
Richard Miller
Imprinter Technologies