Patent ID: 7668912

Claim:
A system for providing technical support for a device, comprising: a first client component having a first conferencing application; a second client component coupled to said device, said second client component having a second conferencing application; a server component configured to establish conference communication between said first client component and said second client component by means of said first and second conferencing applications, said conference communication being effective for distributing video and audio data streams between said first and second client components and for forwarding device diagnostic data from said device to said first client component; a conference channel communication connection over which the video and audio data streams are carried between the first client component and the server component and between the second client component and the server component; and a back-channel communication connection over which said device diagnostic data is transmitted from said device to said server component, wherein the back-channel communication connection enables said diagnostic data to be transmitted from the second client component to the first client component in real-time, wherein said device is a networked office tool having said second client component integrally installed within the chassis of the device, and the networked office tool is at least one of a copy machine, a facsimile machine, a scanner, or a printer.