1. A method performed by a device associated with an apparatus to report a state of the apparatus to a remote computer, the method comprising: detecting the state of the apparatus; generating a message that reports the state of the apparatus to the remote computer, the message comprising a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command, and the message containing a code that is unique to the device or apparatus, wherein generating is performed periodically or in response to a deviation in the state; and sending the message comprising the HTTP command to the remote computer, the HTTP command comprising a command that is configured to report the state of the apparatus using eXtensible Markup Language (XML); wherein the device is on an internal network and the remote computer is on an external network that is separate from the internal network, and wherein, as a result, the remote computer cannot initiate communication to an address of the device on the internal network; and wherein the state of the apparatus comprises values of two or more variables associated with the apparatus, one or more of the variables being flagged if one or more of the variables corresponds to an error condition associated with the apparatus.