JP2005094633A - Method for setting communication apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication apparatus setting method for automatically setting one or more communication apparatuses. <P>SOLUTION: The communication apparatus setting method is the method for setting via a network a setting value to be included in one or more communication apparatuses for exchanging picture information. The method comprises: a retrieval step for retrieving the communication apparatus to be a setting object through the use of SNMP; and a setting step for performing setting with respect to the retrieved communication apparatus by using SOAP. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device setting method for communication devices connected to a network.

  Conventionally, a facsimile (hereinafter referred to as a fax) connected only to a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) can be connected to a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) in recent years.

  By connecting to the LAN, a fax can be sent to a personal computer as an e-mail, for example, using the Internet, or a document created by a personal computer application can be sent as a normal fax using PSTN. It becomes possible.

  Under such a background, Patent Document 1 discloses a facsimile apparatus that can be operated by a world wide web browser of an external apparatus by installing a world wide web server program.

Patent Document 2 discloses an image processing apparatus that generates an image processing apparatus having a facsimile transmission / reception function or the like as a Web page, and browses and operates the Web page using a Web browser of a computer connected via a LAN. It is disclosed.
JP 2000-92262 A JP 2002-7095 A

  However, in the above-mentioned patent document, the setting of fax is performed by a Web browser for each unit, and a plurality of devices are not automatically set.

  In view of such problems, the present invention has an object to provide a communication device setting method that automatically sets one or more communication devices.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention provides a communication device setting method for setting a setting value of one or more communication devices that transmit and receive image information via a network, the setting target being the setting target The communication device includes a search step for searching for communication devices using SNMP, and a setting step for setting the searched communication devices using SOAP.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is characterized by having a search range setting step of setting a range of IP addresses to be searched in the search step.

  Moreover, in order to solve the said subject, this invention has the communication apparatus related information acquisition step which acquires the communication apparatus related information regarding this communication apparatus using SNMP from the searched said communication apparatus, It is characterized by the above-mentioned. .

  Moreover, in order to solve the said subject, this invention has the communication apparatus information clarification step which specifies the acquired said communication apparatus information, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is characterized in that the communication device related information includes at least one information of serial number information, model information, and manufacturer information of the communication device. To do.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention can limit communication devices to be set at the setting stage to only communication devices having an initial value that is a setting value set at the time of manufacture of the communication device. It is characterized by.

  Moreover, in order to solve the said subject, this invention has the initial value acquisition step which acquires the said initial value from the said communication apparatus, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  In order to solve the above problem, the present invention sets a different set value for each communication device to be set in the setting stage as a predetermined fixed value or no setting is performed. It is characterized by that.

  In order to solve the above problem, the present invention is characterized in that the setting value set in the setting step is acquired from information in XML format.

  As described above, according to the present invention, a communication device setting method for automatically setting one or more communication devices can be obtained.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, a communication device that transmits and receives image information is described as a network facsimile.

  FIG. 1 shows a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The network system shown in FIG. 1 includes a plurality of workstation groups 11 including workstations 12, a router 14, a mail server 15, a network facsimile 16 (hereinafter referred to as a fax), and a LAN 17 that connects them. Consists of.

  Workstations belonging to the workstation group 11 include applications such as application software (e-mail access, etc.) for exchanging various data via the LAN, and viewers for processing image information included in e-mails received from the fax machine 16. Various programs such as software have been introduced.

  The router 14 connects the LAN 17 and the Internet. The mail server 15 provides e-mail collection and distribution services to users and fax machines 16 that use the workstation group 11 connected to the LAN 14.

  The fax machine 16 has a transmission function for transmitting and receiving image information according to a group 3 facsimile transmission procedure using a public network as a transmission path, as well as having a function for sending and receiving electronic mail in a LAN.

  Data exchange between terminals connected to the LAN 17 is performed by applying a combination of TCP / IP, which is a transmission protocol up to the transport layer, and higher-layer communication protocols. For example, in the transmission of electronic mail, a communication protocol called SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) is applied as an upper layer communication protocol.

  The network system shown in FIG. 1 has the configuration described above. In the following description, the workstation and the fax may be expressed as a terminal. In addition, a general communication device connected to the LAN 17 may be expressed as a device.

  Next, the operation of each terminal and mail server 15 in the network system shown in FIG. 1 will be described. In the network system shown in FIG. 1, electronic mail is once stored in a mail server 15 and then distributed. For example, electronic mail from the fax machine 16 to the workstation 12 is temporarily stored in the mail server 15.

  On the other hand, the workstation group 11 and the fax machine 16 make an inquiry to the mail server 15 for receiving an e-mail addressed to the own terminal at an appropriate cycle, and when the e-mail addressed to the own terminal is accumulated in the mail server 15. The mail server 15 receives the electronic mail and notifies the user of the terminal to that effect.

  Specifically, for example, when the workstation 12 makes an inquiry to the mail server 15 to receive an e-mail addressed to the own terminal, the workstation 12 notifies that the e-mail addressed to the own terminal is accumulated in the mail server 15. Therefore, the electronic mail is received and the user is notified accordingly. The user who has received the notification reads the contents of the electronic mail and confirms the contents.

  As a communication protocol for obtaining such an e-mail, POP (Post Office Protocol) or the like can be applied.

  Also, in this embodiment, the workstation group 11 can send a request for relay transmission of image information to another communication apparatus connected to the PSTN from the workstation 16 to the fax machine 16. Email is used.

  Since the LAN 17 in this case is connected to the Internet, users of other workstation groups 11 connected to the Internet can also request the fax 16 to relay image information.

  The e-mail used in this way is in the MINE (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) format. As the image information, information after being encoded in the Base64 encoding format is set.

  Next, the fax machine 16 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the fax machine 16 includes a system control unit 21, a system memory 22, a parameter memory 23, a clock circuit 24, a scanner 25, a plotter 26, an operation display unit 27, and an encoding / decoding unit. , An image storage device 29, a G3 FAX modem 30, a network control device 31, a LAN I / F 32, and a LAN transmission control unit 33.

  The system control unit 21 performs various control processes such as a control process for each part of the fax machine 16 and a facsimile transmission control procedure. The system memory 22 stores a control processing program executed by the system control unit 21 and various data necessary for executing the processing program, and constitutes a work area of the system control unit 21. The parameter memory 23 is for storing various kinds of information unique to the network communication device. The clock circuit 24 outputs current time information.

  The scanner 25 is for reading a document image with a predetermined resolution. The plotter 26 records and outputs an image with a predetermined resolution. The operation display unit 27 is for operating the fax machine 16 and includes various operation keys and various displays. The encoding / decoding unit 28 encodes and compresses image information and stores a large amount of image information in a state of being encoded and compressed.

  The image storage device 29 is for recording a large amount of image information in an encoded and compressed state. The G3 FAX 30 implements a G3 FAX modem function. The network control device 31 is for connecting the fax machine 16 to the PSTN, and has an automatic outgoing / incoming function.

  The LAN I / F 32 is used to connect the fax machine 16 to the LAN. The LAN transmission control unit 33 uses various predetermined protocols for exchanging various data with other devices via the LAN. This is for executing communication control processing (e-mail transmission / reception processing, etc.).

  The system control unit 21, system memory 22, parameter memory 23, clock circuit 24, scanner 25, plotter 26, operation display unit 27, encoding / decoding unit 28, image storage device 29, G3 FAX modem 30, and network control device described above. 31, the LAN transmission control unit 33 is connected to an internal bus 34, and data exchange between these units is mainly performed via the internal bus 34. Data exchange between the network control device 31 and the G3 FAX modem 30 is performed directly.

  Next, a hardware configuration diagram of the workstation 12 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the hardware configuration includes an input device 42, a display device 43, a drive device 44, a recording medium 45, an auxiliary storage device 46, and a memory connected to each other via a bus B. A device 47, an arithmetic processing device 40, and an interface device 41 are included.

  The input device 42 includes a keyboard and a mouse, and is used to input various operation signals to the workstation. The display device 43 displays various windows and data necessary for operating the workstation. The interface device 41 is an interface for connecting a workstation to a network or an interface for connecting other devices, and is composed of, for example, a NIC (Network Interface Card), a modem, a USB (Universal Serial Bus), or the like.

  A program for operating the workstation is provided by a recording medium 45 such as a CD-ROM or downloaded through a network. In addition, the recording medium 45 is set in the drive device 44, and data and programs are installed in the auxiliary storage device 46 from the recording medium 45 via the drive device 44.

  The auxiliary storage device 46 stores data and programs, and stores necessary files and the like. The memory device 47 reads and stores the program from the auxiliary storage device 46 when the workstation is activated. The arithmetic processing unit 40 executes processing in accordance with a program read and stored in the memory device 47.

  Next, prior to describing the processing executed in the network system described above, SNMP, XML, and SOAP will be briefly described first.

  SNMP is a protocol for monitoring devices connected to the network via the network. The monitoring side is called an SNMP manager, and the monitored side is called an SNMP agent. Then, the SNMP agent holds various states of its own device in a mib (Management Information Base), acquires corresponding information from the mib in response to a request from the SNMP manager, and transmits a response. The mib includes information such as the number of received IP packets and a private MIB uniquely defined by the vendor from basic information such as the IP address and MAC address of the own device and the manufactured vendor.

  The SNMP described above is used for acquiring a device name and a MAC address in this embodiment.

  XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a W3C recommendation, which is a simplified version of SGML (ISO / IEC 8879: 1986), and is compatible with the Internet. Unlike HTML, any tag can be used. Another feature is that data and processing (layout (design)) can be described separately.

  SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a W3C specification for realizing RPC (Remote Procedure Call) and messaging functions using XML. Since it does not depend on the platform, it operates on HTTP or FTP. This is a protocol used for Web services.

  Next, the exchange between the fax machine 16 corresponding to the SNMP agent and the workstation 12 corresponding to the SNMP manager will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S <b> 101, the workstation 12 transmits an SNMP request to the fax machine 16. In step S <b> 102, the fax machine 16 acquires information requested by the SNMP request from the mib and transmits an SNMP response to the workstation 12.

  The workstation 12 acquires the device name and the MAC address of the fax machine 16 by exchanging the SNMP request and the SNMP response as in steps S101 and S102. Steps S101 and S102 correspond to a search stage and a communication device related information acquisition stage. The communication device related information is a part or the whole of information held in the mib by the fax 16.

  Next, the workstation 12 transmits a SOAP request in step S103, and the fax machine 16 transmits a SOAP response in step S104. In steps S <b> 103 and S <b> 104, the workstation 12 acquires version information of the fax 16 and the like. Further, the initial value of the fax 16 may be acquired in advance in steps S103 and S104. In this case, step S103 and step S104 correspond to the initial value acquisition stage. The initial value means a set value that is set when the fax machine 16 is manufactured.

  Next, processing of the workstation 12 when searching for a device such as the fax machine 16 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S201, a search IP address is set. Step S202 is processing for determining whether or not the device to be transmitted is within the range of the IP address set by the user on the setting screen described later before transmitting the SNMP request in step S203.

  If it is outside the IP address range, the process ends. If the IP address is within the range, the workstation 12 transmits an SNMP request to the device having the IP address in step S203.

  In step S204, the workstation 12 determines whether there is an SNMP response to the SNMP request transmitted in step S203. If there is no SNMP response, the process of step S201 is performed again to set the next IP address. When there is an SNMP response, the workstation 12 acquires a host name, a serial number, a model name, a Mac address, and the like from the device that has responded. In step S205, the workstation 12 transmits a SOAP request to the device corresponding to the target model from the obtained model name.

  In step S206, the workstation 12 determines whether or not there is a SOAP response to the SOAP request transmitted in step S205. If there is no SOAP response, the process of step S201 is performed again to set the next IP address. If there is a SOAP response, the workstation 12 displays a list of searched devices in step S207 corresponding to the communication device information specification stage, and ends the processing.

  Next, a setting screen for setting by the user described in the above-described flowchart will be described with reference to FIG. In the setting screen of FIG. 6, a network input field 51, a net mask input field 52, an Add button 53, an Edit button 54, a Remove button 55, and a display field 56 are displayed.

  The network input column 51 is a column for inputting a network address. The net mask input field 52 is a field for inputting a net mask. The display column 56 is a column in which the set network address and net mask are displayed. The Add button 53 is a button for setting items input to the network input field 51 and the net mask input field 52. The Edit button 54 is for editing the content displayed in the display field 56. The Remove button 55 is used to delete the content displayed in the display field 56.

  Using the setting screen described above, the IP address range of the device to be searched is set. As a result, the search time can be reduced and unnecessary network traffic can be suppressed. Also, by searching as described above, one or more faxes can be searched.

  Next, a list display screen for displaying a list of searched devices will be described with reference to FIG. The list display screen shown in FIG. 7 includes a display selection unit 60, an Address display field 61, a Manufacturer display field 62, a Model display field 63, a Serial Number display field 64, a Firmware Version display field 65, a System A Version display field 66 and an NIB Version display field 67 are displayed.

  The display selection unit 60 displays a network area, and the user selects which display item to display from among the displayed “Selected Devices”, “Unselected Devices”, and “172.17.22.255”. . The Address display field 61 displays the IP address of the device. In the Manufacturer display column 62, the manufacturing company that manufactured the device is displayed. In the Model display field 63, the model name of the device is displayed. The serial number display field 64 displays the serial number of the device. The Firmware Vision display column 65 displays the firmware version of the device. The system version display field 66 displays the system version. The NIB Version display field 67 displays the version of the network interface board. In addition, after writing parameters with SOAP, status such as success / failure is displayed for each device.

  In the list display screen, when one or more listed devices are selected, a device setting screen is displayed. An example of this setting screen is shown in FIG. On this setting screen, a setting item 70, a radio button 71, an initial value button 74, an OK button 72, and a cancel button 73 are displayed.

  In the setting item 70, a setting item of the fax 16 including "Just Size Print" is displayed. The radio button 71 is a button for setting the above setting items by ON and OFF. The initial value button 74 is a button for setting a predetermined initial value. The OK button 72 is pressed by the user when setting with the radio button is confirmed, and the cancel button 73 is pressed by the user when not setting.

  With the initial value button 74 described above, an initial value can be set for a fax that has been once set to a value different from the initial value.

  The processing of the workstation 12 when setting the setting items set in this way to the fax machine 16 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S301, the workstation 12 reads data of a device to be set. This data will be described later. In step S302, it is determined whether the device is a setting target device. If the device is not a setting target device, the workstation 12 performs the process of step S301 again. In the case of the setting target device, the workstation 12 determines whether or not the setting content is an initial value in step S303. If the setting content is an initial value, the workstation 12 sets the initial value as the setting value in step S304, and advances the process to step S304.

  If the setting content is not an initial value, the workstation 12 determines whether there is a setting item individually in step S305. If there is an individual setting item, the workstation 12 reads the setting value set by the user in step S307.

  The workstation 12 sets the value read in step S307 or step S306 in the fax machine 16 using SOAP in step S308 corresponding to the setting stage, and ends the process.

  Next, the data read in step S301 described above will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is an example of setting information described in the XML format. The XML sentence shown in FIG. 10 includes an XML sentence 80 indicating a print name, an XML sentence 81 indicating a display name, an XML sentence 82 indicating a fax number, an XML sentence 83 indicating a dial-in function, and an envelope. An XML sentence 84 indicating the function is shown.

  In the XML sentence 80, “RICOH” is set as the print name. In the XML sentence 81, “aaaaaa” is set as the display name. In the XML sentence 82, “123456789” is set as the fax number. In the XML sentence 83, “On” using the dial-in function is set. In the XML sentence 84, “On” using the envelope function is set.

  Thus, conventionally, the value to be set had to be input each time, but in this embodiment, it can be saved in an XML file, so that a system for reusing data and exchanging data as electronic data can be used. Convenience can be improved, such as being able to construct. In addition, since such an XML file is provided for each target device, it is possible to automatically set one or more faxes.

  Next, processing for setting the handling of a device that does not have an initial value and the handling of setting contents that differ for each device will be described using the flowchart of FIG. Note that setting values that differ for each device include, for example, a print name, a display name, and a fax number.

  In step S401, the workstation 12 causes the user to input the handling of the device having no initial value, and when writing permission is input, in step S402, 1 is assigned to the writing flag. If write permission is input, the workstation 12 assigns 0 to the write flag in step S403. As a result, the device to be set can be limited to only communication devices having an initial value.

  Next, in step S404, the workstation 12 causes the user to input how to handle different setting contents for each device. If the user inputs a different content for each device to be excluded from writing, the workstation 12 substitutes 0 for the device flag in step S405. When the user inputs to write a fixed value, the workstation 12 assigns 1 to the device flag in step S406. If the user inputs that nothing is written, the workstation 12 assigns 2 to the device flag in step S407. As described above, the setting content that differs for each device is set as a predetermined fixed value as set in step S406 or set as a result as set in steps S405 and 407 as a result. I will not.

  By referring to the information set in the write flag and the device flag set in this way, it is possible to perform processing related to the setting content that differs from device to device that does not have an initial value.

  As a result, the conventional fax setting software could not distinguish whether the setting is permitted or not. However, this example allows only the initial value of the device to be overwritten. Can be prevented.

  In addition, the same setting contents have been set for each device in the past, but in this embodiment, it is possible to select whether to write a fixed value or not to write anything blank, so that the user can select It is possible to provide functions that meet the purpose of use.

1 is a diagram illustrating a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of a fax. It is a hardware block diagram of a workstation. It is a sequence diagram which shows the exchange between a fax and a workstation. It is a flowchart which shows a workstation. It is a figure which shows a setting screen. It is a figure which shows a list display screen. It is a figure which shows the format of the image data which can be converted by MLB. It is a figure which shows a setting screen. It is a figure which shows the setting information described in the XML format. It is a flowchart which shows the process which sets the handling of the setting content different for every apparatus and apparatus which does not have an initial value.

Explanation of symbols

11 workstation group 12 workstation 14 router 15 mail server 16 network facsimile 17 LAN
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 21 System control part 22 System memory 23 Parameter memory 24 Clock circuit 25 Scanner 26 Plotter 27 Operation display part 28 Coding / decoding part 29 Image storage apparatus 30 G3 FAX modem 31 Network control apparatus 32 LAN I / F
33 LAN Transmission Control Unit 40 Arithmetic Processing Unit 41 Interface Device 42 Input Device 43 Display Device 44 Drive Device 45 Recording Medium 46 Sosuke Memory Device 47 Memory Device 51 Network Input Field 52 Net Mask 53 Add Button 54 Edit Button 55 Remove Button 56 Display Field 60 Display selection section 61 Address display field 62 Manufacturer display field 63 Model display field 64 Serial Number display field 65 Firmware Vision display field 66 System Version display field 67 NIB Version display field 70 Setting item 71 Radio button 72 OK button 73 Cancel button 74 Initial value button 80, 81, 82, 83, 84 XML statement

Claims (9)

A communication device setting method for setting setting values of one or more communication devices that transmit and receive image information via a network,
A search stage for searching for the communication device to be set using SNMP;
A communication device setting method, comprising: a setting step of setting the searched communication device using SOAP. The communication device control method according to claim 1, further comprising a search range setting step of setting a range of IP addresses to be searched in the search step. The communication device control method according to claim 1, further comprising a communication device related information acquisition step of acquiring communication device related information related to the communication device from the searched communication device using SNMP. The communication device control method according to claim 3, further comprising a communication device information specifying step that clearly indicates the acquired communication device information. 5. The communication device setting method according to claim 3, wherein the communication device related information includes at least one or more of serial number information, model information, and manufacturer information of the communication device. 6. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein a communication device to be set in the setting stage can be limited to only a communication device having an initial value that is a setting value set when the communication device is manufactured. Setting method. The communication device setting method according to claim 6, further comprising an initial value acquisition step of acquiring the initial value from the communication device. The setting value that is different for each communication device to be set in the setting stage is set as a predetermined fixed value or is not set. The communication device setting method according to the item. 9. The communication device setting method according to claim 1, wherein the setting value set in the setting stage is acquired from information in an XML format.

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