Patent ID: 7016952

Claim:
A method of remotely servicing a scanner from a central service facility, comprising the steps of: monitoring traffic passing through a location on a local area network, said traffic comprising files or objects of digital image data that conform to a communications protocol in accordance with which each file or object has a header comprising an origination address that is the address of the respective device that transmitted the file or object onto said local area network and a destination address that is the address of the particular device destined to receive that file or object from said local area network, said monitoring step being performed by a computerized device that is connected to said location on said local area network and has an address different than the destination address; transmitting an instruction signal from a central service facility to said computerized device via a network other than said local area network, said instruction containing the address of a specified scanner that is connected to said local area network, wherein said computerized device captures any file or object passing through said location on said local area network that has a header with an address identifying said specified scanner as the transmitting device, while not capturing any file or object passing through said location that has a header with an address identifying a transmitting device different than said specified scanner, said captured file or object comprising at least one image frame; sending said captured file or object from said computerized device to said central service facility via said other network; and displaying said image frame at said central service facility.