Abstract: Methods disclosed facilitate the obtaining and display of status information for printers. In some embodiments, a status request may be sent to a printer requesting the status of parameters whose status is tracked by the printer. In some embodiments, the MIB objects pertaining to parameters specified in the request may be represented using XML and a response to the status request may be sent, wherein the response includes an XML representation of the MIB objects. The requested status information may be displayed by parsing the response to the status request. The methods may be performed in whole, or in part, by one or more of a printer, a computer, and/or a handheld device that may be coupled through Bluetooth or USB connections.