The invention relates to the technical field of home networks. A home network based on the current UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) standard allows data to be interchanged between network subscriber stations. An extension to this standard also provides for the interchange of AV data (Audio/Video data). One of the basic ideas of the UPnP specification is that it is possible to control any UPnP device using a standard HTML browser. To this end, every UPnP device has a web server on which the HTML pages for controlling the device are stored. It is permissible to embed a “JAVA applet” into the HTML page in order to control the device. This means that device control can be made very convenient. However, when it is necessary to control a device which needs to interchange data on the basis of the UPnP-AV standard, the JAVA applet first needs to know whether and, if so, which devices of the MediaRenderer or MediaServer type are present in the network. The JAVA security restrictions prevent the requests required for this purpose from being made from the JAVA applet however. The invention implements an additional device ascertainment service in the device for control in order to make these requests possible. This device ascertainment service communicates with the loaded JAVA applet in the remote control device using standard SOAP messages. It is thus possible to use the advantageous method of embedding a JAVA applet into an HTML page even to control UPnP-AV devices.