JP2001274798A - Terminal information setting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem where the conventional terminal information setting method sometimes causes disagreement between an IP address of an operating system OS and an IP address of an application, because the OS side can freely set the IP address and the setting is not reflected on terminal information of the application. SOLUTION: In a system, where an application program working on a host to which an IP address is set, fetches the IP address of the host and stores it as terminal information, and the terminal information is used to distinguish its own host from other hosts in a network, the application program acquires the IP address of the host, when the application is started, compares the IP address with the stored terminal information, provides a confirmation purpose output to a user to update the terminal information with the IP address, when the comparison result indicates disagreement, and the terminal information is updated with the acquired IP address of the host, in response to an update instruction by the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method of using an IP address in a TCP / IP network as terminal identification information of an application program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art TCP / IP is used as a network protocol.
In a host that uses, an OS (operating system) sets and stores an IP address. An application program running on such a host can take this IP address and use it as information for identifying its own host. For example, in a client / server system in which the same type of application program on the server side and the client side operate in cooperation, an IP address can be used to identify a plurality of existing client applications. Then, the server application stores the IP address used by the client application in its own database, and communicates only with the legitimate client application registered in the database. In many cases, an IP address of a client is set in advance when an application program is introduced or a product is shipped, and the IP address is registered in a database of a server application.

[0003]

The setting of the IP address is realized as a function on the OS side. Therefore, the user can freely set and change the settings regardless of the application program. If the IP address set on the client OS has been changed and it has not been reflected in the database of the application program, the access request from the client application is not accepted by the request from the legitimate client. If not, the server application may reject the contact. Therefore, a problem may occur in which a system that should originally operate as a client / server system does not function.

[0004]

According to the present invention, an application program operating on a host to which an IP address is set fetches the IP address of the host, stores it as terminal information, and stores the terminal information in a network. In a system used to distinguish a host from other hosts, an application program obtains an IP address of a host when started, and then compares the IP address with stored terminal information. And
If the comparison does not result in a match, the terminal information is output to the user to confirm that the terminal information is to be updated with the IP address, and in response to the update instruction from the user, the terminal information is updated with the IP address of the host that acquired the terminal information. This solves the above problem.

[0005]

FIG. 1 shows a client / server system according to an embodiment. One server device 10 and a plurality of client devices 17 form a local network via a communication line 16. Then, the server application program 12 installed in the server device 10 and the client application program 19 installed in the client device 17 operate in cooperation. The client device 17 is also called a terminal because it is hanging from the server device 10. Since the client device 17 has the same configuration, only one client device is shown in the figure. In the embodiment, in consideration of connection with an external global network, the server device 10 and the client device 17 are each also referred to as a host, and each is identified by an IP address. The IP address is the OS (operating system) 11,
18 is set and stored in the respective secondary storage devices 13 and 20 for management. On the other hand, the application programs 12 and 19 acquire the IP addresses 14 and 21 of their own hosts set by the OSs 11 and 18 and obtain the terminal information 15 and 22 representing the host where they are located as I / O managed by the OS.
Secondary storage devices 13 and 20 separately from P addresses 14 and 21
To memorize.

In the system of the embodiment, the IP address of each host is set in advance at the time of product shipment. Also,
The terminal information stored in each application program is also shipped with the IP address of each host set in advance. Therefore, at the start of operation of the system, the IP address and the terminal information in each host are the same. Further, the server application 12 stores the terminal information 22 of all the clients 17 in the terminal information database 15. This is for registering an authorized client application 19 that is allowed to communicate with the server application 12. The server application 12 refuses an access request from a client application 19 on a terminal that is not registered in the database 15, that is, on the host. Therefore,
The IP address of the host and the terminal information of the application program running on the host must always match. Therefore, the application program
At least at the time of activation, the IP address of the host is compared with its own terminal information, and if they are different, the terminal information is updated to the correct IP address.

FIG. 2 shows a client application 1
9 shows an operation at the time of startup. When the application program is started, first, it acquires the IP address 21 of its own host (step S21). Next, the terminal information 22 managed by itself is compared with its IP address 21 (S22). As a result of the comparison, if they do not match (S2
3; No), whether the terminal information can be updated with the new IP address is displayed on the screen to inquire the user (S24). When an input to update is received from the user (S25; Yes), the IP address is notified to the server application 12 as new terminal information. Server application 1
2 rewrites the terminal information database accordingly (S26). Then, the client application 19 updates the terminal information 22 managed by itself with the new IP address (S27).

In steps S24 and S25, the user is asked whether the terminal information can be rewritten. If the terminal information is not found to match the IP address without checking this, the terminal is automatically rewritten. The information may be updated with a new IP address. In that case, it is preferable to display the terminal information so as to inform the user that the terminal information has been updated.

In the above-described embodiment, the mismatch between the terminal information and the IP address is detected when the application program is started. However, this may be performed at any time or periodically. For example, server device 1
Since 0 may be operated for 24 hours, it is not sufficient to verify only at startup. The same applies to the client device. Thus, the application program can be operated so as to verify at regular time intervals or at a fixed time every day.

[0010]

According to the present invention, even when the IP address is changed on the OS side, the change is almost automatically reflected on the terminal information of the application program. As a result, instead of first setting a new IP address, that is, terminal information using a utility of an application program, and then changing the IP address of the host on the OS side, only the work on the normal OS side is sufficient. become. In addition, it is possible to prevent the user from forgetting to change one of the settings, or from mismatching due to an input error of one or both of the IP addresses.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an operation of an application program in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Server device 11, 18 Operating system 12 Server application program 13, 2
0 Secondary storage device 14 IP address 15 Terminal information database
16 communication line 17 client device 19 client application program 21 IP address 22 terminal information

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An application program running on a host to which an IP address is set, fetches the IP address of the host, stores the information as terminal information, and distinguishes the terminal information from its own host and other hosts in a network. When the application program is started, the application program obtains the IP address of the host, compares the IP address with the stored terminal information, and does not match as a result of the comparison. In this case, the terminal information is output so as to confirm to the user that the terminal information is to be updated with the IP address, and the terminal information is updated with the IP address of the host that acquired the terminal information in response to the update instruction from the user. Terminal information setting method. 2. Operating on a host to which an IP address is set, taking in the IP address of the host, storing the information as terminal information, and distinguishing the terminal information from other hosts and the host in the network. An application program used when the application program is started, obtains an IP address of the host, and then compares the IP address with stored terminal information. The information is output to confirm to the user that the information is updated at the IP address, and the terminal information is updated with the IP address in response to the update instruction from the user. A machine-readable medium that stores a program to be used as the identification information of the computer.