A process for triggering a heater (10) for motor vehicles having a data memory (16) in which a first computer (20) is connected via an Internet connection (22) to a second computer (24), and at the request of the first computer (20), the second computer (24) transmits a first heater operating data sequence (26) to the first computer (20). Then, the first computer (20) transmits a second heater operating data sequence (28) which is dependent on the first heater operating data sequence (26) to the data memory (16). The first and the second heater operating data sequences (26, 28) contain at least information about the number of starting processes permissible for the heater (10).