19. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 13 , wherein the message comprises one or more of the following: data identifying a type of the device, a common name for the device, a manufacturer of the device, a model name of the device, a model number of the device, a serial number of the device, and a universal unique identifier for the device.
13. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions for execution by a device associated with an apparatus to report a state of the apparatus to a remote computer, the instructions for causing the device to perform operations 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, 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.