Patent ID: 7580985

Claim:
A method of monitoring an image forming device attached to a local area network by a first monitoring device, the method comprising: obtaining, by the first monitoring device, from a memory associated with the monitoring device, an address of the image forming device; accessing, by the first monitoring device, the image forming device using the obtained address to obtain a first code identifying a manufacturer of the image forming device; determining, by the first monitoring device, whether the obtained first code matches one of a plurality of codes stored in the memory associated with the monitoring device by parsing the first code; if the determining step determines a match, (1) storing, in the memory, a name of the manufacturer corresponding to the first code, (2) accessing the image forming device to obtain a description of the image forming device, (3) searching the obtained description for a model of the image forming device, and (4) obtaining device information from the image forming device based on the name of the manufacturer and the model of the image forming device, if obtained; creating, in the memory, a device object, the device object including the device information and the name of the manufacturer of the image forming device, if the determining step determines a match, and the model of the image forming device, if the model was obtained in the searching step; obtaining, by the created device object, a unique identification for the image forming device; transmitting, by the first monitoring device, the device information stored in the device object to a second monitoring device over a wide-area network for storage in a digital repository; accessing, by the first monitoring device, the image forming device to obtain status information of the image forming device; and periodically transmitting, by the first monitoring device, the status information to the second monitoring device over the wide area network for storage in the digital repository, wherein the image forming device is one of a printer, a scanner, a digital copier, and a stamping machine.