JP2000207144A - Network printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the load of a network by providing a sure event reporting means. SOLUTION: On a network 20, a server 30 or PC 40 is connected, and the information of equipment can be printed by a printer 10 or can be exchanged directly. A managing agent 11 has a list of notice destinations for reporting printing end or errors, and when any event to be reported occurs, notice information is successively transmitted to terminals on the list of notice destinations. An event occurrence notice managing part 12 prepares an event occurrence notice managing table for each event that occurs, and prepares the list of parties to which the notice is transmitted. When there is an event occurrence notice managing table after the lapse of fixed time, the event occurrence notice is transmitted again to the corresponding party. The PC/server, which receives the notice, clears the relevant information of the event occurrence notice managing table. When the reception can not be confirmed even if the notice is repeatedly transmitted several times and no confirmation can be provided even after resending is performed three time to five times, the event occurrence table is erased and resending is stopped.

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 printer directly connected to a network, and an MFP (Digital Copier (registered trademark) capable of using functions such as copy, fax, printer, and scanner).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a printer directly connected to a network supports a network management function, a notification of an error or the like is transmitted to a terminal / server that manages devices on the network. Normally, when a notification event occurs, the printer issues a notification packet, but the notification packet is sent only once when the event occurs, and it is not always guaranteed that a terminal / server that performs device management on a network can receive the notification packet.
Therefore, a terminal / server that manages devices on the network needs to periodically monitor the status in parallel with the event occurrence notification. For this reason, each PC is equipped with a printer monitoring function. However, as the number of printers and PCs increases, this monitoring traffic becomes a very heavy load on the network.

[0003] When there are a plurality of PCs / servers for notifying an event, not all the corresponding terminals need to always notify. However, usually, once the notification is set, these management mechanisms always notify the occurrence of an event even when the receiving side is not present on the network (even when the power is turned off).

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the load on a network by providing reliable event notification means. An object of the present invention is to prevent unnecessary packets from being transmitted on a network as much as possible.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer or MFP having a network adapter for processing a protocol application and a communication application.
The present invention is characterized by a network printer having a network management agent, having event occurrence management information, and having an event occurrence notification management unit for resending the event at regular intervals based on the management information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a notification destination that has failed to obtain the acknowledgment a plurality of times from the management information of the occurrence of an event stops resending the notification because there is no acknowledgment function. The PC / server can be set to have a notification destination table and a reception confirmation function via a network at the time of startup, a print request, a printer management tool startup, and the like. The present invention is characterized by a network printer having a notification destination management unit that is set to have a reception confirmation function and invalidates the reception confirmation function when a reception confirmation cannot be obtained.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of use of a network printer according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the present invention. Is connected to the server 30 and the PC 40, and can print on the main body network printer 10 and directly exchange device information. The management agent 11 of the network printer 10 has a list of notification destinations (Table 1) for notifying the end of printing and an error, and when an event for notification occurs, sequentially transmits the notification information to the terminals of the notification destination list. . Event occurrence notification management unit 12
Creates an event occurrence notification management table (Table 2) for each event that has occurred, and creates a list of transmission partners. If there is an event occurrence notification management table after a predetermined time, the event occurrence notification is transmitted again to the corresponding partner. Received PC /
The server clears the corresponding information in the event occurrence notification management table. The presence / absence of a reception confirmation function can be set in the notification destination list of the management agent 11, and it can be set not to perform retransmission according to the function of the PC / server. The reason that reception confirmation is not obtained even if retransmission is repeated several times is that the terminal does not exist on the network or that there is only a network trouble. To stop resending.

[0008]

[Table 1]

[0009]

[Table 2]

[0010] In the event occurrence notification management table shown in Table 2, the notification destination table of table number 5 is one of the notification destinations.
It is cleared because there was a receipt confirmation from the turn. Table number 6 is a state in which only the notification has been sent to the two notification destinations, and both are waiting for reception confirmation. Since the second destination in the notification destination list shown in Table 1 is not always retransmitted, the bit is already cleared when the table is created.

Example of packet for confirming reception Source address Transmission ID Event ID A notification destination table number is obtained from the transmission ID and the transmission source address, and the bit of the notification destination table of the event occurrence notification management table is dropped according to the event ID.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a network printer according to the second aspect of the present invention.
The network printer 10 shown in (1) further includes a notification destination management unit 13 in addition to the management agent 11 and the event occurrence notification management unit 12 (Table 3 shows an example of a notification destination list).

[0013]

[Table 3]

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a processing flow according to the second aspect of the present invention. The unconfirmed counter counts up when retransmission is completed and when no acknowledgment is received. When this counter exceeds a prescribed number (for example, 2 in the embodiment), the reception confirmation function is set to be disabled. The packet added to the notification destination list is, for example, a communication address transmission ID reception confirmation function (ON / OFF).

[0015]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the printer, the M
Since the change in the state of the FP is notified by the notification of the event, the PC can stop periodically making an inquiry for monitoring, and the traffic on the network can be reduced. The PC only needs to have the notification of the event without performing the monitoring process that has occurred periodically, and the load on the PC can be reduced.

If a detailed situation monitoring is to be performed, a large amount of information will be transmitted to the network even if the notification method is adopted. On the other hand, PC /
Even if there are many servers, it is not necessary to constantly monitor the status of the printer. According to the invention of claim 2, it is possible to prevent unnecessary traffic from being generated by setting whether or not to perform event occurrence notification so that monitoring can be performed only when information is required.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a network printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the invention of claim 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 network printer, 11 management agent, 12 event occurrence notification management unit, 13 notification destination management unit
20: network, 30: server, 40: PC.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printer or MFP having a network adapter for processing a protocol application and a communication application, having a network management agent, having management information on occurrence of an event, and periodically retransmitting an event based on the management information. A network printer having an event occurrence notification management unit for performing the operation. 2. The network printer / MF according to claim 1.
In P, the notification destination for which the reception confirmation has not been obtained a plurality of times from the management information of the occurrence of the event stops the retransmission of the notification because there is no reception confirmation function, and starts from the PC / server, The notification destination table and the reception confirmation function can be set via the network when the printer management tool is started, and the notification destination is added from the network and set to the reception confirmation function, and the reception confirmation cannot be obtained. A network printer that has a notification destination management unit that disables the reception confirmation function at times.