JP2003271346A - Network equipment and network printer system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simplify the introduction of a network printer system by automatically switching a plurality of printers under a network environment to make it unnecessary for a user to select a printer suitable for his or her own purpose of use, and to provide a means for utilizing the printers in the network. <P>SOLUTION: This network equipment is configured to look like a printer in a network although it is not equipped with any printing function, to receive a print job from a host computer through the network, to transmit the print job to a network printer by itself, to acquire the information of capability from another network printer, and to search a printer capable of processing the transmitted job for transferring and processing the job. Thus, it is possible to reduce each time network retrieval by storing the selection results in a chart. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network device and a network printer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Up to now, when a plurality of printers exist in a network, it is the user's active operation (for example, Microsoft Windows
(Registered trademark) In OS and the like, a plurality of printer icons are made and switched depending on the case).

As a conventional technique related to the present invention, for example, there is a technique described in Japanese Patent Application No. 9-114499. This technique describes a network printer system that transfers a job between printers to provide convenience to the user. This technique is a technique for transferring a job as an alternative means when the printer cannot print due to an error or the like, and it is not an alternative means but actively carries out job delivery to effectively use the printer on the network. Is different from.

In Japanese Patent Application No. 10-170822,
A printing system for job transfer is described. In this technique, job transfer is used only in the sense that a high-performance printer takes over the rendering function of a low-function printer, which is a different viewpoint from the present application.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-67195 describes a network printer and a network printing system which efficiently process a print job even when the printer on the network cannot print.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and in a network environment, by automatically switching a plurality of printers, a user can achieve his or her own purpose. It provides a means to ease the introduction by reducing the need to select the existing printer and utilize the printer in the network. (EN) Provided is a network device which enables a user to automatically select a printer suitable for the content to be printed while suppressing the network load.

[0007] Furthermore, a network device is provided in which the user can make a selection based on his or her will and further improve convenience.

[0008] Furthermore, the present invention provides a network device capable of reflecting the user's selection result in the subsequent automatic selection.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 looks like a printer on the network but does not have a printing function, and prints from a host computer via the network. Can receive jobs, can also send jobs to network printers, can acquire capability information from other network printers, can search for a printer that can process the sent jobs, and transfer the jobs to be processed By storing the selected results in a table, it is possible to reduce the number of network searches each time.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the transfer destination is set to the user based on the user name (ID) added when the job is transmitted from the host computer. It is characterized in that it can be notified by e-mail, and when a plurality of printers are selected and the priority order has not been decided, selection can be prompted by e-mail and the selection result can be received in the form of a memory reply.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that, in the invention according to claim 2, automatic selection is performed based on a past selection result of the user.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in a network, a host computer, a network printer, and a network-like printer, which does not have a printing function but looks like a printer to the last, receive a print job from the host computer via the network. To send a job to a network printer, to acquire capability information from other network printers, to find a printer that can process the sent job, and to transfer the job for processing. And a network device having a function, and the network device can reduce the number of network searches each time by storing the selected result in a table.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a network printer system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The pseudo printer 2 is a network device according to the embodiment of the present invention. In the system of the first embodiment, the pseudo printer that has received the job via the network first searches for a printer that can process the job in the internal printer list. If not found in the table, or if the found printer is not currently available, contact the printer in the network to find a printer that can work. When inquiring via the network, list all found printers in the printer list.

If there is a printer that can process the job, the job is transferred to the printer for printing. In this case, if there are multiple candidates, they are randomly selected.

The host computer 1 has a known OS.
There is an (operating system), an application running on it, a printer driver, etc., and a print job is generated and transmitted to the pseudo printer 2 via the network.

The pseudo printer 2 interprets the print job, acquires the printing conditions, and selects one of the network printers 3 connected to the network 4 that meets the conditions.
You can select one and transfer the job.

The pseudo printer 2 includes an operation panel 2a,
There are an address book 2b and a printer list 2c. The printer list 2c has the format shown in FIG. The printer list 2c describes information such as printer identifiers and conditions.

The pseudo printer 2 does not have an image forming system for printing, but has a function of interpreting a print job in a limited manner. Not all data needs to be rasterizable. There are various possible ranges, and for example, finishing processing at the time of paper discharge, that is, staple and punch, the number of colors used in print data (monochrome / color, etc.), and the like can be considered.

As a result of the interpretation, if the conditions under which the job can be printed are determined, the pseudo printer 2 first searches for the corresponding printer from the internally held printer list 2c.

If there is no printer corresponding to the printer list 2c, or if there is a printer that is present but is currently unavailable, the network printer 3 connected to the network 4 is searched for a printer that satisfies the conditions. The search means is known, and for example, SNMP (Si
Information that is managed by Directory Service, such as that information is acquired and searched for all printers in the network each time using mple Network Management Protocol), data that is acquired in advance is retained and searched from it. It is possible to access.

In any case, the search result is stored in the printer list 2c. At this time, if the table already exists and cannot be searched, it is not deleted immediately. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the number of connection additions is counted, and when a certain threshold value (for example, 10 times) is reached, deletion is performed. This makes it possible to reduce the possibility of being excluded from the selection when the network load is too high to respond to an inquiry or when the power is accidentally turned off.

If one network printer 3 is decided,
The pseudo printer 2 transfers the job to the network printer 3.

Next, in the network printer system of the second embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the processing of the system of the above-mentioned embodiment, when transmitting a print job, the user name (or ID, login name) is set in the host computer. Unique to the network (single), of course, the email address itself may be added) to the job. The device obtains a mail address from the user name.

In the system of the second embodiment, instead of the process of randomly extracting a plurality of printers of the same condition in the system of the first embodiment, an electronic device listing the printers selected by the user's mail address is displayed. Perform the process of sending an email.

The user writes the selection result in this mail and replies to inform the device of which printer was selected. The device receives this result, selects the printer, and sends the job. At this time, similar to the system of the first embodiment, the printer list 2c is added.

Protocols for sending electronic mail are known. The method for determining the destination of the mail is to have the user enter it when creating a job on the host computer 1. If the network is managed by a domain, the login user name is network unique. It is conceivable to use the login user name to obtain the e-mail address.

In the system of the first embodiment, when a plurality of print candidates are selected, a list of them is sent as an electronic mail to the address. The user emails the selection result as a reply to this. As a method of selecting the selection result, a method of assigning a number and replying only the number can be considered.

Upon receiving the reply, the network device analyzes the mail and sends the job to the selected printer. If the email analysis fails, send an inquiry email again.

When the reply is not received within the fixed time, the printer is randomly selected and the job is sent as in the system of the first embodiment.

Next, in the network printer system according to the third embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the processing of the above-described second embodiment, the selection result of the user can be reflected in the automatic selection. Perform processing.

In the system of the third embodiment, every time a printer is used, the number of times the printer is used in the printer list 2c is counted. The number of times of use is used as a priority order by performing appropriate processing.

In the system of the third embodiment, in the processing of the second embodiment, the "number of times of use" of the printer list 2c is incremented by 1 for each printer used.
When a print instruction is received, an appropriate calculation is performed on this "number of times of use" and the priority is processed. For example, "(Number of usage-
It is conceivable to perform an operation of “<threshold value>) / <significant difference> (* round down the decimal point)”.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. The above-described embodiment shows an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. .

[0034]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a printer suitable for the content of a print job is automatically and used without any special mechanism on the print host (computer) side. You will be able to make a choice based on the will of the person.

Further, the user can select a printer under the same conditions by his / her own will.

Further, the selection result of the user can be reflected in the subsequent automatic selection.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a network printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printer list 2c included in the pseudo printer 2 in the network printer system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Host computer 2 Pseudo printer 2a Operation panel 2b address book 2c Printer list 3 network printers 4 network

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A network-like printer, which does not have a printing function, can receive a print job from a host computer via the network, and can also send the job to the network printer. It is possible to obtain the capability information from the server, search for a printer that can process the sent job, and transfer the job to be processed. By storing the selected result in the table, it is possible to search the network every time. Network equipment that can reduce the 2. The transfer destination can be notified to the user by e-mail based on the user name (ID) added when the job is sent from the host computer, and a plurality of printers can be used. 2. The network device according to claim 1, wherein when is selected and the priority order is not determined, the selection result can be prompted by electronic mail and the selection result can be received in the form of a reply to the memory. 3. The network device according to claim 2, wherein automatic selection is performed based on a past selection result of the user. 4. In a network, a host computer, a network printer, a function that looks just like a printer in the network but does not have a printing function, a function for receiving a print job from the host computer via the network, and Also has the ability to send jobs to network printers and the ability to get capability information from other network printers.
A network device having a function of searching for a printer capable of processing the transmitted job and processing the job by transferring the job, and the network device stores the selected result in a table, A network printer system that can reduce the network search of.