A system and a method are provided for enabling a user to connect a serial port of a device server to a serial device, query and capture data and settings pertaining to the serial device such that the device server can communicate and exchange data with the serial device without requiring customized programming. The device server may periodically query and capture user-specified data from the serial device. A poll configuration feature may be used to specify one or more commands which the device server will periodically query from the serial device. The response to each poll may be further sliced into a multiplicity of smaller portions according to user-specified filter rules. The captured data may be presented to other users online by way of a Web Manager, and the device server may establish machine-to-machine communications by way of XML and a Command Line Interface.