System and procedure for management of peripherals over a network by a number of remote users has a visual interface for each peripheral that allows the user to select or adjust services he requires

摘要

Peripheral system management procedure which allows a computer user (10) to visualize the state of managed remote peripherals (22, 24) where each peripheral can be accessed by a number of users via any of a number of different interfaces (33) using any of a number of management interfaces (26) each of which can provide information in a number of ways. Stored data (29) for this procedure includes a method for controlling an application when a user selects a visualization object (36) that in turn displays information relating to the object and services it supplies. The controlling processor recoups information in a three stage process from the peripheral devices using the managing entities.