Copier and monitoring network

A copier monitoring network, comprising:

• a wireless base spread spectrum transceiver for receiving status information sent from within a wide geographic area and transmitting diagnostic control information within said wide geographic area in response to said status information;
• a base processor coupled to said wireless base transceiver for analyzing said status information and generating said diagnostic control information for said wireless base transceiver in response to said status information;
• a plurality of copying machines within said wide geographic area, each copying machine including a copier processor for gathering and generating said status information regarding operation of a corresponding copying machine, each copying machine including a wireless copier spread spectrum transceiver for transmitting said status information to and receiving said diagnostic control information from said wireless base transceiver, said base processor and said wireless base transceiver being at a geographically remote location from each copying machine within said wide geographic area, said wide geographic area including a radius of fifty miles from said wireless base transceiver.

A method of monitoring a copying machine, comprising the steps of:

• generating status information within the copying machine regarding operation of the copying machine;
• receiving said status information from the copying machine through wireless spread spectrum radio frequency communications transmitted over a wide geographic area, the wide geographic area including a radius of fifty miles from the copying machine.