Method of monitoring and configuring

1. A method for managing and monitoring communication devices in a firewall/NAT protected network from a management system outside the firewall/NAT protected network, comprising:

periodically and at predefined events opening a hypertext transfer protocol (http) connection from inside a firewall/NAT installation protecting the network and transmitting a request from the communication devices to the management system through the firewall/NAT installation protecting the network;

when receiving said request in the management system, transmitting instructions and data to the communication devices in a http response through said http connection; and

when one of the communication devices is connected to the network for a first time,

opening an initial http connection from inside the firewall/NAT installation and transmitting a BOOT request through said firewall/NAT installation from said one of the communication devices,

when receiving said BOOT request in the management system, transmitting configuration data and parameters to said one of the communication devices from the management system, said configuration data and parameters at least defining time intervals between periodical requests and events triggering requests to be transmitted from said one of the communication devices to the management system; and

prior to opening the initial http connection,

transmitting from said one of the communication devices to a DHCP server a DHCP request requesting an IP address of said one of the communication devices, and

receiving from the DHCP server a DHCP response including both said IP address of said one of the communication devices and an IP address of the management system.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said request is defined according to a Simple Object Access Protocol.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the http connection is an https connection.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein prior to opening the initial http connection, the method comprises:

transmitting from the DHCP server to the one of the communication devices said DHCP response including both said IP address of said one of the communication devices and said IP address of the management system.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein said request is defined according to the Simple Object Access Protocol.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the http connection is an https connection.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said transmitting instructions and data includes transmitting at least one of the following:

new time intervals between periodical requests to be transmitted from the communication devices to the management system overriding any existing ones;

definitions of new events initiating event requests to be transmitted from the communication devices to the management system;

a command for initiation of download of new software from the management system to the communication devices; and

a command for instructing the communication devices to transmit status information to the management system.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the communication devices are IP based conference endpoints or equipment.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, at the management system, a communication from said one of the communication devices in accordance with the time intervals and events defined in the configuration data and parameters.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein

said transmitting transmits said BOOT request through said firewall/NAT installation from said one of the communication devices to said management system outside said firewall/NAT protected network using said IP address of said management system included in said DHCP response.

11. A method for managing and monitoring communication devices in a firewall/NAT protected network from a management system outside the firewall/NAT protected network, comprising:

receiving, at the management system outside, a BOOT request originating from a communication device inside a firewall/NAT installation that connected to the network for a first time on a hypertext transfer protocol (http) connection opened by the communication device from inside the firewall/NAT installation protecting the network, and prior to the http connection being opened, the communication device transmitting to a DHCP server a DHCP request requesting an IP address of the communication device, and receiving from the DHCP server a DHCP response including both said IP address of the communication device and an IP address of the management system; and

in response to receiving said BOOT request, transmitting configuration data and parameters from the management system to the communication device, said configuration data and parameters at least defining time intervals between periodical requests and events triggering requests to be transmitted from the communication device to the management system.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving, at the management system, a communication from the communication device in accordance with the time intervals and events defined in the configuration data and parameters.