Patent ID: 8612555

Claim:
An apparatus for providing a communication interface between a home-network and an external network, and remotely managing a home-device connected to the home-network, comprising: a transmit data processing unit for transmitting information on the home-device to a provider server connected to the external network, and requesting environment setting data for setting a driving environment of the home-device; a receive data processing unit for receiving a response message based on the request, from the provider server, and extracting the environment setting data included in the response message, the response message including a drive hash algorithm of the home-device, wherein the driving environment for operation of the home-device is set based on the environment setting data, said home-device being one of a new home-device and an existing home-device, wherein when the new home-device is added to the home-network, the driving environment is set using environment setting data following: the transmit data processing unit transmitting the information on the new home-device and requesting the environment setting data at an instant the new home-device is added to the home-network, wherein when the existing home-device is updated, the driving environment is set using the updated environment setting data following: the transmit data processing unit transmitting the information on the existing home-device and the receive data processing unit receiving the response message based on the request and extracting the environment setting data, wherein the receive data processing unit confirms whether or not a notification message notifying of the environment setting data of the home-device being updated, has been received from the provider server, wherein if the notification message has been received, the transmit data processing unit transmits the information on the home-device corresponding to the notification message to the provider server, and wherein if the home-device corresponding to the notification message is not connected to the home-network, the transmit data processing unit transmits an absence message indicating an absence of the home-device, to the provider server.