JP3042599B2 - Printing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of transmitting communication information mainly including fault information to a terminal on a network by itself.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of printing apparatus is sometimes used by being directly connected to a computer by a cable. A printing system that sends data to a printer and shares a printing device has also been developed.

In such a printing system, since the printing apparatus is shared by a plurality of computers via a network, the state of the printing apparatus and the printing history can be obtained by installing software for communicating with the printing apparatus in each computer. A function has been built that allows you to check For example, in an information output device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-73128, a technique for counting print requests from a plurality of computers existing on a network for each computer is disclosed.
Here, a technology for notifying a computer when a failure occurs in a printing apparatus is also disclosed.

[0004]

In the above-described printing system (information output apparatus), when information is spontaneously transmitted from the printer of the printing apparatus, if the broadcast communication is used, the destination computer is not activated. Also, if the network is connected to a remote network via a public line or the like, transmission from the printing apparatus may cause the public line to be in a connected state and the line to be connected unnecessarily.

[0005] The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and its technical problem is to avoid unnecessary use and connection of a line by transmitting information to an appropriate terminal.
An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus that can use a line without waste.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in a printing apparatus capable of transmitting communication information including at least fault information to a terminal on a network, a source address and a communication protocol transmitted by the terminal from the network are provided. A network interface for receiving packet data containing the packet data, a packet communication monitoring unit that reads out, as terminal operation information, a source address and a communication protocol of a terminal operating on the network of the terminal based on the packet data received by the network interface; The communication list that holds the terminal operation information read by the communication monitoring unit, and the terminal that operates on the network by referring to the terminal operation information in the communication list when transmitting the communication information by itself. Packet communication that sends communication information to Printing device and a control unit is obtained.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a printing system including a printing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

In this printing system, a plurality of computers (terminals) 6 and a printing device 7 are connected via a network 5, and the plurality of computers 6 transmit packet data including a source address and a communication protocol to the network 5. It can be transmitted via the Internet.

The printing device 7 is capable of transmitting communication information including at least fault information to a plurality of computers 6 on the network 5 by itself, and includes a source address and communication information transmitted from the plurality of computers 6. A network interface 1 for receiving packet data including a protocol via the network 5, and a source address and a communication protocol of a plurality of computers 6 operating on the network 5 based on the packet data received by the network interface 1. The packet communication monitoring unit 21 that reads out the terminal operation information, the communication list 31 that holds the terminal operation information read by the packet communication monitoring unit 21, and the terminal operation information in the communication list 31 when the device itself transmits the communication information. Browse multiple computers And a packet communication control unit 23 for transmitting a communication information to those running on the network 5 of the 6.

The packet communication monitoring unit 21 and the packet communication control unit 23 are provided in the packet communication unit 2 and the communication list 31 is provided in the storage unit 3 as described later. With such a configuration, the packet communication unit 2 uses the plurality of computers 6 based on the source address and the communication protocol received by the network interface 1.
Of the communication list 31 that communicates on the network 5 is stored and held in the storage device 3.
For example, when performing packet transmission of failure information as communication information, the packet communication control unit 23 refers to the communication list 31 and notifies the computer 6 currently operating on the network 5 of the failure information. Can be.

More specifically, the printing apparatus 7 includes a network interface 1 for transmitting and receiving packet data to and from a plurality of computers 6 via a network 5, and operates under program control to transmit packet data. On the network 5 of the plurality of computers 6 relating to the processing of creating the communication list 31 based on the source address and the communication protocol according to the contents, the print instruction processing relating to the print data, and the transmission data including the notification required data or the communication request data. A packet communication unit 2 that performs a communication process including a transmission process with reference to a communication list 31 for a communication operation, and a storage device that stores a source address and a communication protocol as a communication list 31 and stores other information 3 and a printer 4 for performing printing in accordance with a print instruction It is provided as basic configuration.

The packet communication unit 2 includes a packet communication monitoring unit 21 for analyzing packet data received via the network interface 1, and a storage device 3.
The communication list control unit 22 controls and manages the data of the communication list 31 by the timer 221, and the data of the communication list 31 (terminal Packet communication control unit 2 that performs communication control based on operation information)
And a packet data processing unit 24 that processes the received packet data and transfers the print data to the printer 4 if the data is print data, and receives the transmitted data from the printer 4 and generates packet communication data in response to the transmitted data. ing.

In the following, in such a printing system, the network 5 is a LAN (Ethernet local area network) and the communication protocol is TCP / TCP.
The operation will be described assuming that a RAM (random access memory) is used for the IP and the storage device 3.

First, an operation process in the printing apparatus 7 when packet data is received from a specific one of the plurality of computers 6 via the network 5 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

Here, when packet data transmitted from a specific computer 6 via the network 5 is received by the printing apparatus 7, the packet data is transmitted to the network interface 1 and then transmitted to the packet communication unit 2. Handed over to

In the packet communication unit 2, the packet communication monitoring unit 21 analyzes which computer the input packet data is transmitted from, and what communication protocol is used, and identifies the source (source) address of the computer, Read the communication protocol (step S1),
The information is passed to the communication list control unit 22. Communication list control unit 2
At 2, the source address and the communication protocol are stored in the storage device 3.
Is stored in the communication list 31 (step S2). This processing is for storing that the transmission source computer is operating on the network 5. The communication list 31 is controlled by the timer 221 of the communication list control unit 22, and the time can be arbitrarily set by a program. The communication status on the network 5 is periodically updated by the timer 221 at a fixed time.

Subsequently, it is determined whether the destination is addressed to itself (step S3). If the destination is a packet addressed to itself, the packet data is delivered to the packet data processing unit 24. The packet data processing (step S4) is performed accordingly, and if the data is print data, processing for delivering the data to the printer 4 is performed, and then the processing is terminated. However, if the packet is not addressed to itself, the processing is immediately terminated.

Next, an operation process in the printing apparatus 7 when transmitting fault information from the printing apparatus 7 via the network 5 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

In this case, when some trouble occurs in the printer 4 to generate notification required data, the packet data processing unit 24 receives the notification required data from the printer 4 as transmission data (step S1) and creates packet data (step S1). Perform S2). Here, the created packet data is delivered to the packet communication control unit 23, and the packet communication control unit 23 checks the communication list 31 (step S3).

Subsequently, the packet communication control unit 23 determines whether or not the communication list 31 has a transmission source address (step S4). If the transmission source address is in the communication list 31, the address and the protocol in the communication list 31 are determined. Then, a failure notification packet is transmitted to each address (step S5), and the process is terminated. If the source address does not exist in the communication list 31, the process ends without transmitting.

Incidentally, as the operation processing for the notification required data, for example, an error such as the absence of toner occurs in the printer 4 and the error information from the printer 4 is sent from the printer 7 to a specific one of the plurality of computers 6. Transmission of packet data on the basis of the packet data.

In the communication list 31, as described above, the timer 221 of the communication list control unit 22 discriminates between two times of 0 and 1, and switches and saves two communication destination lists according to these values. become. This prevents the packet data from being deleted from the communication list 31 immediately after receiving the packet data. For example, by setting the value of the timer 221 to one minute, one of the communication lists 31 is updated every other minute, and a list of computers currently operating on the network 5 is created at two-minute intervals.

FIG. 4 shows an example of Ethernet packet data received by the printing apparatus 7 and stored in the communication list 31. FIG. 4 (a) relates to a source address at time 0, and FIG. 4 (b). Is related to the source address at time 1. FIG. 5 exemplifies packet data transmitted by the printing apparatus 7.

Here, the packet type is represented by "0800" of 13 to 14 bytes, and 0800 indicates that the protocol is IP.

As for the source address at time 0, the transmission address is "7E00010" of 27 bytes to 30 bytes.
8 ", the destination address is" 7E000362 "of 31 bytes to 34 bytes, and the transmission address of the source address at time 1 is" 12345678 ".

When the printing apparatus 7 receives the packet data, such a transmission address and a communication protocol are stored in the communication list 31 by the communication list control unit 22. Thereafter, as described with reference to FIG. 2, if the destination address is an address addressed to itself, the packet is passed to the packet data processing unit 24, but if the destination address is not addressed to itself, the processing operation ends.

When transmitting a fault information packet from the printing apparatus 7, the packet communication control unit 23 sets the transmission source address of the destination computer 6 to the communication list 31.
For example, “7E000108” shown in FIG.
Then, a failure notification packet is transmitted to the corresponding computer 6 on the network 5 via the network interface 1 using the protocol 008. Subsequently, referring to the other communication list 31, FIG.
After confirming the registration of "12345678" shown in
Transmit via protocol 008.

[0029]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, the communication status on the network is monitored, and the packet data including the source address of the computer operating on the network and the communication protocol is received. A communication list is created by analyzing and storing the information, and broadcast transmission is not used when transmitting a failure notification packet, and the packet is transmitted to a computer operating on the network by referring to the communication list. By transmitting information to the terminal, unnecessary use or connection of the line can be avoided, and the line can be used without waste. In a printing system connected to a plurality of computers via a network connected to a public line or the like, packet transmission by broadcast notification is eliminated, and unnecessary connection is eliminated, so that the cost for connection can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration of a printing system including a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation process in the printing apparatus when packet data is received from a specific one of a plurality of computers via a network in the printing system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation process in the printing apparatus when transmitting fault information from the printing apparatus via a network in the printing system shown in FIG. 1;

4A and 4B illustrate Ethernet packet data received by a printing apparatus of the printing system shown in FIG. 1 and stored in a communication list, wherein FIG. 4A relates to a source address at a specific time, and FIG. This is related to the source address for a short time.

FIG. 5 illustrates packet data communicated by the printing apparatus of the printing system shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 network interface 2 packet communication unit 3 storage device 4 printer 5 network 6 computer 7 printing device 21 packet communication monitoring unit 22 communication list control unit 23 packet communication control unit 24 packet data processing unit 31 communication list 221 timer

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/09-3/12 G06F 13/00 351-357 G06F 15/00-15/00 390 H04L 12 / 00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A printing apparatus capable of transmitting communication information including at least fault information to a terminal on a network by itself, wherein the network receives packet data including a source address and a communication protocol transmitted by the terminal from the network. An interface, a packet communication monitor that reads the source address and the communication protocol of the terminal operating on the network based on the packet data received at the network interface as terminal operation information, and the packet communication. A communication list that holds the terminal operation information read by the monitoring unit, and operates on the network among the terminals by referring to the terminal operation information in the communication list when the device itself transmits the communication information. For what you do A packet communication control unit for transmitting the communication information.