System for network device location

Abstract

A management station responds to an HTTP request for device discovery by spawning a device discovery task that creates a linked list and first broadcasts UDP based requests out on a subnetwork for devices on the same subnetwork to respond. Device information from responding network devices is stored in a linked list. This process is repeated until a specified length of time has expired. Then a second broadcast request is sent out that includes a list of printers that have responded so that they will nor keep responding. The list is updated by responses until there are no more responses. Any nodes in the linked list that still only have a network address are updated by sending a unicast SNMP request those network addresses in order to get the additional information. The data from the linked list is sent back to the HTTP client.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method of network device location, comprising: 
 sending a DLP request to devices on the network;    receiving DLP responses from responding devices on the network, wherein the DLP response includes information uniquely identifying the device;    generating a list of responding devices;    assigning an IP address to each responding device not having an IP address;    sending the IP address to the responding devices; and    updating the list of responding devices to include the assigned IP address.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the DLP responses from the devices include at least a MAC address.  
     
     
         3 . A system for locating devices on a network, comprising: 
 at least one device having a DLP server for sending DLP responses, wherein a DLP response includes information uniquely identifying the device; and    a first device having a DLP client for sending a DLP request to devices on the network; for receiving DLP responses from responding devices; for generating a list of responding devices; for assigning an IP address to each responding device not having an IP address; and for sending the IP address to the responding devices; and for updating the list of responding devices to include the assigned IP address.    
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the DLP response includes a MAC address.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the first device comprises a computer and the at least one device comprises a printer.