Patent ID: 7149792

Claim:
A method to register a device with a remote computer, the method comprising: communicating with the remote computer each time the device powers-up; and making a determination, each time the device powers-up, as to whether to proceed with registration based on communication with the remote computer, wherein the determination is made based on correctness of registration information stored on the remote computer for the device and currency of the registration information; wherein, if the determination is not to proceed with registration, the method further comprises aborting registration for a current power-up of the device; wherein, if the determination is to proceed with registration, for the current power-up of the device the method further comprises: obtaining feature information stored for the device, the feature information comprising information that is specific to an instance of the device, the feature information comprising an address of the remote computer and a physical location of the device, the address comprising a known address that is stored prior to installation of the device in a system; and registering the device with the remote computer by transmitting the feature information to the remote computer at the known address using eXtensible Markup Language (XML); and wherein the method is performed automatically without manual intervention.