Methods, apparatus and computer program products for providing network device status information

#This invention relates to computer systems, methods and computer program products, and more particularly to graphical computer systems, methods and computer program products.

#There are a variety of conventional techniques for monitoring networked devices, such as servers, routers, printers, uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) and the like. For example, there are a number of network management programs that display a network topology in some representational format, such as a plurality of icons that represent devices and which are connected by lines or other graphic elements that indicate network connectivity. Some network management applications may show status of individual devices and/or interconnections by applying color codes to the icons and/or the connecting graphic elements. Other conventional techniques provide status information in tabular or chart form. Potential drawbacks of such approaches may include software overhead and complexity associated with creating and maintaining a complex graphical representation of a network, and the difficulty of discerning the status of objects in a graphical network diagram or table for a network that includes a large number of devices and interconnections.

#In some embodiments of the invention, status information for a network device, such as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), may be provided by displaying a web browser window uniquely associated with the network device and having a color indicative of a status of the network device. In particular, a field of the web browser, such as a background field, may be color coded responsive to a status of the network device.

#FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating apparatus for hosting and monitoring color coded status web pages according to some embodiments of the invention.

#FIG. 2 is a screen shot of a colored status web browser window according to some embodiments of the invention.

#FIG. 3 is a screen shot of a detailed status web page linked to a color status web page according to further embodiments of the invention.

#The present invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which typical embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

#Various embodiments of the invention involve providing status information for a network device, which may include, but it is not limited to, devices such as networked printers, computers, scanners, uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) and the like. The invention may be advantageously practiced using computers, e.g., personal computers, laptop computers, notebook computers, computer workstations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other devices, connected by a network, such as the Internet. The Internet is a worldwide decentralized network of computers having the ability to communicate with each other. The Internet has gained broad recognition as a viable medium for communicating and for conducting business. The World-Wide Web (Web) was created in the early 1990's, and is comprised of server-hosting computers (Web servers) connected to the Internet that have hypertext documents (referred to as Web pages) stored therewithin. Web pages are accessible by client programs (e.g., Web browsers) utilizing the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) via a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection between a client-hosting device and a server-hosting device. While HTTP and Web pages are the prevalent forms for the Web, the Web itself refers to a wide range of protocols including Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Gopher, and Web content formats including plain text, HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), as well as image formats such as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG).

#A Web site is conventionally a related collection of Web files that includes a beginning file called a “home” page. From the home page, a visitor can access other files and applications at a Web site. A large Web site may utilize a number of servers, which may or may not be different and which may or may not be geographically-dispersed. A Web server (also referred to as an HTTP server) is a computer program that generally utilizes HTTP to serve files that form Web pages to requesting Web clients. Exemplary Web servers include International Business Machines Corporation's family of Lotus Domino® servers, the Apache server (available from www.apache.org), and Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS), available from Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash. A Web client is a requesting program that also generally utilizes HTTP. A browser is an exemplary Web client for use in requesting Web pages and files from Web servers. A Web server waits for a Web client, such as a browser, to open a connection and to request a specific Web page or application. The Web server then sends a copy of the requested item to the Web client, closes the connection with the Web client, and waits for the next connection.