Patent ID: 7215746

Claim:
A method for setting programmable features of an appliance comprising: providing an interactive site on a global computer network; providing a graphical user interface at the interactive site, said graphical user interface having a virtual appliance that graphically depicts programmable features of a corresponding real appliance, said real appliance including a removable transfer device having an input port; establishing a connection with the interactive site using a computer; interactively setting programmable features of the virtual appliance using the graphical user interface at the interactive site; downloading set-up data for the programmable features from the interactive site to the computer; removing the transfer device from the real appliance; coupling the input port of the transfer device to the computer; transferring the set-up data from the computer to the transfer device; returning the transfer device to the real appliance; and using the set-up data to set the programmable features of the real appliance.