not necessarily the server device for example a printer may actively seek to discover potential roaming devices to service even though the printer is the initiating device the printer is a server device rather than a client device the discovery algorithm does not change regardless of whether the initiating device is a server device or a client device the discovery algorithm is available for use in both client and server devices for one embodiment of the discovery filter algorithm of fig1 the initiating device is the client device and the responding device is the server device after receiving the discovery request from the client device in operation 110 the algorithm of operation 120 determines whether the device is set to filter mode the filter state bit is set by the user application stored in nonvolatile flash memory if the filter state bit is not on the algorithm of operation 190 sends the normal discovery response to the requesting device if however the filter state bit is asserted operation 130 determines if the client device address is in the filter list the device addresses of approved or friendly devices are stored in a cache of non volatile flash memory in this embodiment of the invention if the address of the client device is found in the filter list in operation 130 the algorithm determines whether the permission bit is set for the device in operation 140 the server device will not approve the discovery request unless the client device is on the filter list if the device is on the list the permission bits are stored in the non volatile memory array if the discovery permission bit for the client device in operation 140 is not set the client device is denied inquiry permission and the algorithm is terminated by.