Patent ID: 7139823

Claim:
A method for discovering status of a network topology, comprising the steps of: presenting an interface having a menu, the menu having a plurality of alternative discovery methods; responsive to user input, establishing an order in which the alternative discovery methods should be performed; executing the alternative discovery methods in the established order; maintaining a dynamically gathered record of devices which are compliant to at least one of a first discovery method and a second discovery method; using an appropriate discovery method for a given device according to the dynamically gathered record, wherein a first device of the devices is accessed using the first discovery method and a second device of the devices is accessed using the second discovery method; and automatically altering the established order in which the alternative discovery methods should be performed as programmatically determined according to a first number of devices compliant to the first discovery method and a second number of devices compliant to the second discovery method according to the dynamically gathered record.