Patent ID: 7555570

Claim:
A method of associating an interfacing module, having unique interfacing module identification data, connected to a network with a target network device connected to the same network comprising the steps of: physically coupling the interfacing module to a peripheral port of a target network device both the interfacing module and the target network device having their own unique addresses for sending and receiving communications on the network; communicating the interfacing module identification data to the target network device through the physical coupling; storing the interfacing module identification data in a memory portion of the target network device; at a remote location on the network having a remote device distinguished from both the interfacing module and the target network device by the remote device at the remote location having another unique address for communications on the same network: (1) polling addresses on the network to discover the existence of the target network device on the network; (2) determining the network address of the target network device; and (3) using the network address of the target network device to read the interfacing module identification data from the memory portion of the target device via the same network and extracting from the memory portion of the target network the network address of the interfacing module that is physically coupling the target network device; storing in a database at the remote location an association among a name identifier of the target network device, the network address of the target network device, and the network address of the interfacing module; and discovering when the interfacing module has disconnected from the target network device.