Patent ID: 7801981
Filing Date: 2010-09-21
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A remote monitoring system, comprising: an electronic apparatus, the electronic apparatus having a removable storage medium, a self-diagnosis unit configured to test hardware elements of the electronic apparatus, and a local network interface, the removable storage medium including apparatus management information including an operation log and dynamic setting information of the electronic apparatus; a low order monitoring apparatus including an information variation detection section and having the local network interface, configured to connect to a wide area network, and to connect to the electronic apparatus by the local network interface, to receive and store apparatus management information including the operation log and the dynamic setting information from the electronic apparatus; and a high order monitoring apparatus configured to receive and monitor the operation log and the dynamic setting information of the apparatus management information acquired from said low order monitoring apparatus by the wide area network, wherein the low order monitoring apparatus is configured to acquire the apparatus management information of the electronic apparatus upon connection of the low order monitoring apparatus with the electronic apparatus by the local network interface, is configured to store the apparatus management information in a buffer, when the low order monitoring apparatus and the high order monitoring apparatus are not connected with each other by the wide area network, and is configured to send a notification including the apparatus management information through said wide area network to the high order monitoring apparatus, when the high order monitoring apparatus and the low order monitoring apparatus are connected with each other by the wide area network, wherein the electronic apparatus cannot connect to the wide area network, wherein the low order monitoring apparatus is further configured to send a request for a self-diagnosis to the self-diagnosis unit of the electronic apparatus, and to acquire a result of the self-diagnosis that is included in the apparatus management information, and wherein the information variation detection section is configured to analyze the results of the self diagnosis of the electronic apparatus included in the apparatus management information, and to verify whether a hardware element of the electronic apparatus has been used longer than a prescribed period of time.