Patent ID: 7970877

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a first component comprising at least hardware, the first component operable to: automatically identify a second component by reading a device model identifier from the second component upon having a connection established with the second component, the second component comprising hardware; retrieve information associated with the second component from a device database, the information associated with the second component comprising network module information describing a plurality of modular devices; determine whether the second component is a modular device according to the network module information and the device module identifier; if the second component is a modular device having the customizable configuration: learn interface card information from the second component, the interface card information describing an interface card; and look up the interface card in the device database storing information about a plurality of possible interface cards; learn operating system information of an operating system of the second component; determine if the second component includes software that is capable of supporting a function selected by the user of the first component; if the first component determines that the second component includes software that is capable of supporting the function selected by the user, displaying an informational message to the user that conveys to the user that the second component is capable of supporting the function; and if the first component determines that the second component includes software that is incapable of supporting the function selected by the user, initiating an upgrade of existing software for the second component in order to provide the selected function.