1. Description of Related Art
The cross-referenced applications and patents listed above show various methods to communicate with networked devices and appliances. In particular, the service center can establish communication via either direct communication (e.g., a connectionless (UDP) socket or connection-based (TCP) socket using an information protocol (e.g., an HTTP or FTP), or indirect communication (e.g., a store-and-forward system such as electronic mail (e-mail))).
Business Office Appliances, such as copiers, facsimiles, printers and image storage systems, have been connected to networks recently. However, the maintenance system for those systems have been relying upon a service group that sends a service person when the system malfunctions. As the software of those appliances becomes more complex, the maintenance there of becomes crucial to the ongoing operation of the application software.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the use of a network device/appliance that stores its application logs and sends those logs to a service center as part of remote software maintenance. This invention further relates to a service center or resource administration station for finding errors at the service center and passing the information to the maintenance group.