Optical scanner adapted for direct interfacing to a data communications network

An enhanced scanner is equipped with a novel interfacing mechanism for communicating directly with a data communications network. This eliminates the requirement of using intelligent network interface devices to access data generated by any of a plurality of bar code scanners coupled to a communications network. This novel interfacing mechanism may include a program stored on a memory device within the scanner and executed by a scanner processing mechanism. The scanner processing mechanism is adapted to perform two functions-bar code scanning and network communications-thereby reducing the cost and complexity of a communications network that includes one or more bar code scanners coupled to a host device through the network.