Abstract: Hosted searching of different local area network (LAN) information is described. The apparatus for hosted searching of different private LAN information includes a LAN crawler to automatically and repeatedly crawl a LAN having multiple devices, and a hosted on-demand search system including a set of one or more centralized-search servers to create and synchronize a separate private search database for each of the private LANs based on received reports from of different instances of the LAN crawler deployed on the multiple private LANs, at least some of which are operated by different entities.

Abstract: Hosted searching of private LAN information is described. The apparatus includes a LAN crawler to automatically and repeatedly crawl a LAN having multiple devices, using a discovery module to discover the devices, a generic-probing module to attempt to collect the descriptive information according to a first set of probing requirements, and multiple specific-probing plug-ins each of which attempt to collect the descriptive information according to a second set of specific probing requirements. In another embodiment, the apparatus also includes a hosted on-demand search system including a centralized-search server to create and synchronize a private search database.