Patent ID: 7009510

Claim:
A method of performing monitoring of a standalone monitoring system comprising: inputting analog signals from external sensors to sensor inputs of a host, wherein the external sensors monitor a plurality of conditions in a server room holding at least one server, the conditions being monitored including at least a sub-group including temperature, temperature of a server rack, humidity, under the server room floor, smoke, power values, battery levels and sound levels, in the server room; converting the analog signals received at the sensor inputs to digital signals; scanning the digital signals, by a processing system, wherein current values of the conditions being monitored by the external sensors are obtained by the processing system; determining whether any of the values from the external sensors are beyond a preset range; generating an alarm signal for the at least one external sensor when at least one of the values is beyond the preset range; generating a status report for the at least one external sensor when at least one of the values is within the preset range; dispatching the alarm signals or the status report simultaneously via at least one of a phone path leading to a public phone network and a network path leading to at least one of a TCP/IP network or private LAN or WAN data network; the phone path configured by operatively connecting the processing system, an integrated voice/data modem, and a phone network connector, wherein alarm signals and status reports are delivered to an external source as a voice call message; and the network path configured by operatively connecting the processing system and a network connector, wherein alarm signals and status reports are delivered to an external source as at least one of an e-mail message, a message to a web page or an SNMP trap message.