Abstract: Gathering data and providing messages concerning a networked appliance. A software application in the appliance detects the occurrence of events and records indications of the events in real-time or near real-time. Certain events such as appliance errors, or events for which a user desires notification, are associated with alert messages. Upon detecting one of those events, the software application captures a snapshot or set of the events and transmits to a user machine, system server, or web site the set of events along with the alert message and a link to the system server or web site. Upon viewing the alert message, such as via a web page, the user can enter a command to send the events and alert message to the system server or web site for use in servicing the appliance.

Abstract: The invention maintains the context, e.g. the user's language and/or the user's country, while the user is navigating through different related sites or pages. The invention stores and maintains the information about the user's origin, language, country and product of interest during the navigation. This information is stored as arguments in the URL. A session application redirects the user into a particular page based on the arguments provided by the referring site or user's site. The application operates by matching the provided arguments against lookup tables that describe what is available on the main site. When a match occurs between the arguments in the URL and the lookup tables, the invention begins a session by storing information in the URL into a cookie that is stored on the user's computer. A navigation application will use the information stored in the cookie to return the user to their home page.

Abstract: Gathering data and providing messages concerning a networked appliance. A software application in the appliance detects the occurrence of events and records indications of the events in real-time or near real-time. Certain events such as appliance errors, or events for which a user desires notification, are associated with alert messages. Upon detecting one of those events, the software application captures a snapshot or set of the events and transmits to a user machine, system server, or web site the set of events along with the alert message and a link to the system server or web site. Upon viewing the alert message, such as via a web page, the user can enter a command to send the events and alert message to the system server or web site for use in servicing the appliance.