other request formats to obtain the mac address and or other specific device information if the information cannot be obtained in this manner then the discovery process essentially repeats this time using another protocol such as ftp which for some devices can be used to obtain a stored file containing the device information this loop is repeated one or more times again if necessary each time using a different access protocol if none of these processes result in the desired information being discovered then the ip address is reported in the right pane along with an u201c unknown u201d message such as is shown in fig3 for ip address 111 111 111 1 if the device information is obtained then it is provided as shown in fig3 for ip address 111 111 111 51 in this case the manufacturer model number and mac address is displayed although more or less information could be included also if the u201c detail u201d check button is selected then the displayed results can include additional information such as firmware version number or the administrator assigned device name if one exists the remaining figures and description provide additional detail and features concerning the disclosed embodiment turning now to fig4 a multi threaded process is used to effect the network scan of ip addresses this involves initiating a separate thread.