Patent ID: 8648717

Claim:
A programmable communicator device comprising: a programmable interface for establishing a communication link with at least one monitored technical device, wherein the programmable interface is programmable by wireless packet switched data messages; and a processing module for authenticating one or more wireless transmissions sent from a programming transmitter and received by the programmable communicator device by determining if at least one transmission contains a coded number; wherein the programmable communicator device is configured to use a memory to store at least one telephone number or IP address included within at least one of the transmissions as one or more stored telephone numbers or IP addresses if the processing module authenticates the at least one of the transmissions including the at least one telephone number or IP address and the coded number by determining that the at least one of the transmissions includes the coded number, the one or more stored telephone numbers or IP addresses being numbers to which the programmable communicator device is configured to and permitted to send outgoing wireless transmissions; wherein the programmable communicator device is configured to use an identity module for storing a unique identifier that is unique to the programmable communicator device; and wherein the one or more wireless transmissions from the programming transmitter comprises a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) or other wireless packet switched data message; and wherein the programmable communicator device is configured to process data received through the programmable interface from the at least one monitored technical device in response to programming instructions received in an incoming wireless packet switched data message.