JP2000056940A - Network printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To analyze a transmitting/receiving packet for clearing up the cause of a fault of a network printer by holding the packet in a network. SOLUTION: When the packet data are transmitted and received by a network processing part 1c via a network, the packet data are preserved at an HDD preserving part 1b simultaneously with the normal transmission/reception processing. In such a constitution, the data can be acquired from the part 1b even when a switching HUB is used to improve the network performance, for example. Thus, it is possible to provide a network printer which can analyze the data via an analyzer machine, etc., and always secures the stability for the shared resources.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a network printer and, more particularly, to a technique applicable to a network facsimile and other network sharing devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an HU is used to construct a network.
B is required, but collisions (packet collisions) often occur with the recent increase in communication traffic. For this reason, switching hubs have recently been widely used. The switching hub has a function of transmitting a packet only to a target port when a packet is received. The switching hub is much more efficient than a conventionally used HUB, and transmits and receives current image and audio data. It is essential in the environment.
However, since the switching hub transmits a packet only to a port to which a target machine is connected, another problem that an analyzer used to analyze a packet on a network cannot be used has arisen. For example, when a personal computer (PC), a PC, and an analyzer machine are connected to a switching hub, the analyzer machine uses a PC and a PC.
Communication packet cannot be obtained. Therefore, in such a configuration, when a failure occurs in a network printer or the like, the analyzer machine cannot be used as a means for determining the cause.

The functions of the conventional general HUB and switching HUB will be described more specifically with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 conceptually shows a configuration example of a network to which a network printer is connected.
Is a network printer, 2 is a server, 3, 4, and 5 are personal computers (PCs),.
The HUB (line concentrator), P ₁ ~P ₁₂ is port. FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining the function of the HUB used for constructing the network.
FIG. 11B shows a switching HUB that can suppress the occurrence of collision in FIG. In FIG. 11, reference numeral 61 denotes a general HUB, and 62 denotes a switching HU.
B, P ₁ ~P ₁₂ is port.

In a conventional network environment, PCs 3, 4, 5 and a network printer 1 are generally connected to a network via a hub 6 as shown in FIG. Conventional general HUB61 and switching HUB
The function of each of the 62 is described below. As shown (in the case of conventional general HUB) FIG. 11 (A), the port from the machine connected to the port P ₁ (PC) P ₄ when there is a transmission of a packet to the machine connected to the (PC) is, HUB61 outputs a packet received at the port P ₁ to all ports. The machine connected to each port receives the packet when the packet is addressed to itself. Thus, when port P ₄ receives a packet,
Port P _7, for example, from a machine that is connected to the port P ₄ at the same time
For example, when attempting to transmit a packet, a collision (packet collision) occurs and communication performance deteriorates.

(In case of switching HUB) FIG. 11
As shown in (B), the switching HUB 62 has an address table of a machine connected to each port. Therefore, when a packet is transmitted from the machine (PC) connected to the port P ₁ to the machine (PC) connected to the port P ₄ , the switching HUB 62 transfers the packet received at the port P ₁ to the port P ₄ only. Output.
Therefore, never collision occurs also transmit packets including the port P ₄ machine from example port P ₇ connected to the same time, network performance is significantly improved.

An analyzer machine for acquiring a packet on a network and analyzing the content of the packet is a conventional general H
It cannot be used unless it is a UB. The analyzer machine acquires and analyzes a packet when the packet is output to all ports. In network printers and the like, status request packets and packets of various protocols are transmitted and received in addition to print request packets, which may cause performance degradation or the printer itself to go down. It is essential to have the means to determine. At present, when it is necessary to analyze a packet, there is no other way but to construct an environment using a conventional general HUB 61 without using the switching HUB 62 and connect an analyzer machine to perform analysis. In this case, the actual environment using the switching hub 62 and the analysis situation are different, and it cannot be said that this is always a good method.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and holds a transmission / reception packet in a network printer to determine the cause of the failure when the network printer fails. It is an object of the present invention to provide a network printer that enables analysis of a packet for investigation.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network printer which includes a network interface unit and an HDD data storage unit, and transmits and receives packet data via a network connected to the network interface unit. And storing the packet data to be transmitted and received in the HDD data storage unit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network printer which includes a network interface unit, an HDD data storage unit, and a temporary memory, and transmits and receives packet data via a network connected to the network interface unit. The packet data to be transmitted and received is stored in the temporary memory, and the packet data stored in the temporary memory is read out at a timing based on a predetermined condition and stored in the HDD data storage unit.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network printer which includes a network interface unit, an HDD data storage unit, and a temporary memory, and transmits and receives packet data via a network connected to the network interface unit. The transmitting and receiving packet data is stored in the temporary memory, and only the packet data that matches a preset condition is read out from the temporary memory and stored in the HDD data storage unit.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of a network printer according to the present invention.
a is a panel input unit, 1b is an HDD storage unit, 1c is a network processing unit, 1d is a packet data storage control unit, 1e.
Denotes a print processing unit. The network processing unit 1c transmits and receives network data (packets) and processes print requests and status requests for each protocol.
In the present embodiment, the HU is transmitted from the network processing unit 1c.
Data (packet) to be sent to the network via B
And the received data are all stored in the HDD storage unit 1b. The storage control of sending and receiving packet data
This is performed by the packet data storage control unit 1d. The packet data storage control unit 1d performs processing by checking a request from the panel input unit 1a and a data storage request from the network processing unit 1c. Further, the packet data storage function of the present embodiment can be turned ON / OFF by itself, and can be specified from the panel operation unit.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the packet data storage controller in the first embodiment. In FIG. 2, first, the O of this function is
Check the N / OFF request. If requested,
Set the ON / OFF state to the internal switch (save switch). If the current state of the internal switch is ON, the process proceeds to the next process (step S1). If the internal switch is OFF in step S1, the processing for saving the transmitted / received data is not performed. If there is data received from the network in the network processing unit 1c in step S2, the packet data is stored in the HDD storage unit 1b as it is at the same time as normal reception processing (step S2)
5). Also, when data is transmitted from the network processing unit 1c to the network in step S3, the data is stored in the HDD storage unit 1b simultaneously with the normal transmission processing. When the HDD storage unit 1b is full of data, the oldest data in the stored data is deleted in order (steps S6 to S7).

In step S4, when there is a request to output stored data from the panel input unit 1a, the packet data is printed on paper and output. At this time, the output request can also specify a data output method (steps S8 to S1).
1). For example, the types of printing include summary printing, 16
There are three types: hexadecimal printing and full decoding printing. In the summary printing, as shown in FIG. 7, contents such as a source address, a destination address, a protocol layer, and a data summary are output. Hexadecimal printing, as shown in FIG.
The data is displayed in hexadecimal and printed.
As shown in FIG. 9, the contents of the data are analyzed and all details are displayed for each field of the protocol.

If there is a data deletion request from the panel input unit 1a, the data stored in the HDD storage unit 1b is deleted (steps S12 to S13). For example, when data is output as paper, the data is deleted. Thus, it is not necessary to frequently access the HDD storage unit 1b, and it is possible to eliminate a factor that lowers the performance of the entire network printer.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining another embodiment of the network printer of the present invention. In FIG. 3, 1f is a temporary storage memory, and the other functions are the same as those of FIG. The parts having the same reference numerals as those in FIG. In the present embodiment, the network printer according to the first embodiment is provided with a temporary storage memory 1f for temporarily storing packet data before storing data in the HDD storage unit 1b.

HDD storage unit 1b every time a packet is transmitted / received
In the method of accessing the data, the access speed of the HDD storage unit 1b affects the performance of the entire network printer. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the data is stored in a temporary holding area (memory), and the data is stored at an arbitrary timing. The data is written to the HDD storage unit 1b.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts for explaining the processing operation of the packet data storage control unit according to the second embodiment. 4 and 5, the storage processing in the temporary storage memory 1f and the HD
Processing operations other than the processing of writing data to the D storage unit 1b are the same as those in the first embodiment. When a packet is transmitted / received, the packet is stored in the temporary storage memory 1f (step S25). When the temporary storage memory 1f is in the FULL state, the data is stored in the HDD storage unit 1b (step S25). S26, S28),
The data in the temporary storage memory 1f is cleared. Even if the temporary storage memory 1f is not set to FULL, when the printer is not executing the printing process in step S27, the temporary storage memory 1f is sequentially stored in the HDD storage unit 1f.
b.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the packet data storage control unit according to the third embodiment. "Data is written from the temporary storage memory to the HDD storage unit in step S28 in FIG. "Shows a more detailed operation example of the process. This embodiment is different from the second embodiment in that the temporary storage memory 1
When data is stored in the HDD storage unit 1b from f, only packet data that satisfies conditions specified in advance can be stored. This makes it possible to save the storage area in the HDD storage unit 1b and to narrow down the data when analyzing the data.

In the present embodiment, the source and destination addresses are used as conditions for judging a packet. In order to acquire and save only the packet data transmitted and received between the predetermined PC and the printer, the address data of the predetermined PC specified and input in advance from the panel is stored in the packet data storage control unit 1d. When the data is received, the source address is checked, and if the address matches the specified address, the received data is stored in the HDD storage unit 1b. The packet data that does not match the specified address is not stored (step S28).
5, S286). Similarly, in the case of transmission data, the transmission destination address is checked, and if it matches the specified address, it is stored in the HDD storage unit 1b, and if it does not match, it is not stored (steps S283 and S284).
In the present embodiment, the presence or absence of data storage is determined based on the addresses of the reception source and the transmission destination. However, it is also possible to use a determination based on a protocol to be used or a determination method using other conditions.

[0020]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a switching HUB is provided.
Even in an environment in which packet data cannot be obtained and analyzed by the analyzer machine because of the use of, it is possible to obtain transmitted / received data (packets) from the data storage unit provided in the printer. The investigation can be performed promptly, whereby a network printer that always operates stably as a shared resource can be provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the transmission / reception data (packet) is acquired from the data storage unit provided in the printer even in an environment where packet data cannot be acquired and analyzed by the analyzer machine because the switching HUB is used. For example, the analysis and investigation of the cause at the time of occurrence of a failure can be quickly performed. Further, since there is no need to access a data storage unit such as an HDD every time a packet is transmitted / received, a more efficient communication packet data storage function can be realized, whereby a network printer that always operates stably as a shared resource can be realized. Can be provided to the user.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the transmission / reception data (packet) is acquired from the data storage unit provided in the printer even in an environment where packet data cannot be acquired and analyzed by the analyzer machine because the switching HUB is used. For example, the analysis and investigation of the cause at the time of occurrence of a failure can be quickly performed. Also, by selecting data to be stored based on predetermined conditions, only the data that the user wants to obtain can be stored, so that it is possible to save the storage area of the data storage unit and obtain only the data that the user really wants. Becomes possible,
It is possible to realize a more efficient communication packet data storage function, thereby providing a user with a network printer that always operates stably as a shared resource.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a network printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a packet data storage control unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining another embodiment of the network printer of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a packet data storage control unit according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a packet data storage control unit according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a packet data storage control unit according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mode in which packet data is output and printed.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating another example of a mode in which packet data is output and printed.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing still another example of a mode in which packet data is output and printed.

FIG. 10 is a diagram conceptually illustrating a configuration example of a network to which a network printer is connected.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a function of a hub (concentrator) used for network construction.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Network printer, 1a ... Panel input part, 1b
... HDD storage unit, 1c ... network processing unit, 1d ... packet data storage control unit, 1e ... print processing unit, 1f ... temporary storage memory, 2 ... server, 3, 4, 5 ... personal computer (PC), 6 ... line collection Equipment (HUB), 61 ...
General HUB, 62 ... switching HUB, P ₁ ~P
₁₂ ... ports.

Claims (3)

[Claims] A network interface unit;
A network printer for transmitting and receiving packet data via a network connected to the network interface unit, the network printer having a DD data storage unit, and having a function of storing the packet data to be transmitted and received in the HDD data storage unit. Characterized network printer. 2. A network interface, comprising:
A network printer that includes a DD data storage unit and a temporary memory, and that transmits and receives packet data via a network connected to the network interface unit. The network printer stores the packet data to be transmitted and received in the temporary memory, The packet data stored in the memory is read out at a timing based on a predetermined condition, and
A network printer storing data in a DD data storage unit. 3. A network interface unit,
What is claimed is: 1. A network printer, comprising: a DD data storage unit; and a temporary memory, for transmitting and receiving packet data via a network connected to the network interface unit. Only the packet data that matches the specified condition is read out from the temporary memory and
A network printer, wherein the data is stored in a D data storage unit.