Patent ID: 7480249

Claim:
A method for communicating between a monitored device and a monitoring device, comprising: determining information to be transmitted by the monitoring device to the monitored device, the monitored device being one of a printer, a scanner, and a copier, the information including a request for at least one of static data, semi-static data, and dynamic data of the monitored device; and transmitting the information through electronic mail from the monitoring device to the monitored device using an Internet e-mail protocol, wherein the static data represents characteristics of the monitored device that do not change over a life of the monitored device, the semi-static data represents characteristics of the monitored device that infrequently change over the life of the monitored device, and the dynamic data represents characteristics of the monitored device that change according to at least one of a mechanical and an electrical state of the monitored device, the method further including analyzing the at least one of the static data, the semi-static data, and the dynamic data by the monitored device, wherein the at least one of the static data, the semi-static data, and the dynamic data is transmitted in the Internet electronic mail message from the monitored device when the at least one of the static data, the semi-static data, and the dynamic data is analyzed and determined to be within a standard operating range.