remote management of a plurality of network devices is described wherein each device is managed with its own unsigned java ™ applet . unsigned applets launched from different devices operate within the same shared environment of a webpage . furthermore , a transmitting applet communicates with a recipient applet . in one embodiment , the recipient applet is a central management applet that combines data from 10 a plurality of devices into one data pool , which can then be used to provide higher level management capabilities . a combination of centralized management and distributed management is allowed within the java security model , without having to resort to signed java applets or java applications .