System and method for determining the status of a telephone in a packet switched network

摘要

A system and method for determining the status of a telephone in a packet switched network. The system and method provides for the telephone status to be determined by a status monitoring device or, where the network is a cable network and the equipment comprises a telephone, by a subscriber cable interface device. The equipment status file is accessible over a network, such as the Internet, by status accessing device. The status file provides status information indicative of the telephone for which the status is being determined.