Patent ID: 7792946

Claim:
A method for transmitting appliance data, comprising: generating data at the appliance; collecting the data generated at the appliance by a first communications device; formatting and storing the collected data at the first communications device; transmitting the formatted data over a local area network (LAN); receiving the transmitted data at a second communications device; acknowledging a received transmission by the second communications device; checking for an acknowledgement from the second communications device by the first communications device; retransmitting the formatted data to the second communications device by the first communications device if acknowledgement is not received; retransmitting the formatted data to a third communications device by the first communications device upon at least two unacknowledged transmissions to the second communications device, wherein the third communications device acknowledges a received transmission; reformatting and storing the received data at the second or third communications device; retransmitting the reformatted data over a wide area network (WAN); receiving the retransmitted data at a server; reformatting the data at the server; and storing the data in a database.