JP7247603B2 - Information processing device, program, search method and search system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device, program, search method and search system.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a large-scale communication system introduced into a company or the like may be configured with a plurality of networks. In such a communication system, an image forming apparatus such as a printer may be shared, and an image forming apparatus connected to another network may be used.

In the prior art, for example, Patent Document 1 is known as a method of searching for printers. In Patent Document 1, an input means for allowing a user to input an input for specifying a device, and a determination means for determining a broadcast address for a network in which the device exists from address information of the device specified by the input by the input means. and transmitting means for transmitting data based on the broadcast address determined by the determining means.

However, the conventional technology has the problem that user input is required to determine the broadcast address for searching for printers on networks other than the local network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus capable of searching for an image forming apparatus other than a local network without user input.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides an information processing apparatus connectable to a network, having information on a printer port associated with an IP address, and specifying the IP address associated with the printer port. an obtaining unit for obtaining, a generating unit for generating a broadcast address based on the IP address obtained by the obtaining unit, and searching for an image forming apparatus connected to a network based on the broadcast address generated by the generating unit a search unit for obtaining a plurality of the IP addresses, and based on the obtained IP addresses, generates a list of IP addresses so that the IP addresses do not overlap; It is characterized by generating a broadcast address corresponding to each IP address in the list of IP addresses .

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus capable of searching for an image forming apparatus other than a local network without user input.

It is a figure showing an example of composition of a search system concerning the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the information processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the functional block of the information processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. 4 is a flow chart showing an example of a search method according to the present invention; 4 is a flow chart showing another example of a search method according to the present invention; 4A to 4C are diagrams (A) to (C) showing examples of IP addresses acquired by an acquisition unit; FIG. 13A to 13C are diagrams (A) to (C) showing an example of a broadcast address generated by a generation unit; FIG. 4A to 4C are diagrams showing examples of image forming apparatuses searched by a search unit; FIG.

Hereinafter, an information processing apparatus, a program, a search method, and a search system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown below, and can be changed within the scope of those skilled in the art, such as other embodiments, additions, modifications, deletions, etc. is also included in the scope of the present invention as long as the functions and effects of the present invention are exhibited.

The present invention provides an information processing apparatus connectable to a network, comprising: an acquisition unit that has information on a printer port associated with an IP address and acquires the IP address associated with the printer port; a generator that generates a broadcast address based on the IP address acquired by the unit; and a search unit that searches for an image forming apparatus connected to a network based on the broadcast address.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for an information processing apparatus for searching an image forming apparatus connected to a network by an information processing apparatus connectable to a network, wherein the information processing apparatus is associated with an IP address. The program includes an acquisition unit that acquires an IP address associated with the printer port, and a generation unit that generates a broadcast address based on the IP address acquired by the acquisition unit. and a search unit that searches for the image forming apparatus based on the broadcast address.

The present invention also provides a search method for searching for an image forming apparatus connected to a network by an information processing apparatus connectable to a network, wherein the information processing apparatus has a printer port associated with an IP address. information, and the search method includes an acquisition step of acquiring an IP address associated with the printer port, a generation step of generating a broadcast address based on the IP address acquired by the acquisition step, and the broadcast and a searching step of searching for the image forming apparatus based on the address.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a search system including an information processing device connectable to a network and an image forming device to be searched by the information processing device, wherein the information processing device is associated with an IP address. Having printer port information, the search system includes an acquisition unit that acquires an IP address linked to the printer port, and a generation unit that generates a broadcast address based on the IP address acquired by the acquisition unit. and a search unit that searches for the image forming apparatus based on the broadcast address.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a search system according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the search system of this embodiment comprises a plurality of network system nets A to C. FIG.

A client PC, which is an example of an information processing apparatus, and a printer A are connected to the network A. FIG.
Also, the network A is connected to the network B via the router A, and the printer B and the printer C are connected to the network B. Furthermore, the network A is connected to the network C via the router B, and the printer D is connected to the network C.

Note that "PC" means a personal computer. Also, "net" means a network and is also called a segment. When viewed from the client PC, printers B and C and printer D are located in separate segments.

Although a PC (client PC) is used as the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus of the present invention is not limited to this. The information processing device is not limited to a PC (personal computer) as long as it has a communication function, and may be an image forming device or the like. The information processing device includes, for example, a PJ (Projector), an IWB (Interactive White Board), an output device such as a digital signage, a HUD (Head Up Display) device, Industrial machinery, imaging devices, sound collectors, medical equipment, network appliances, automobiles (connected cars), notebook PCs (personal computers), mobile phones, smartphones, tablet terminals, game consoles, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), digital cameras, It may be a wearable PC or the like.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a client PC.
As shown in FIG. 2, the client PC is constructed by a computer, and includes a CPU 501, ROM 502, RAM 503, HD 504, HDD (Hard Disk Drive) controller 505, display 506, external device connection I/F (Interface) 508 , network I/F 509 , data bus 510 , keyboard 511 , pointing device 512 , DVD-RW (Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable) drive 514 and media I/F 516 .

Among these, the CPU 501 controls the operation of the entire client PC. The ROM 502 stores programs used to drive the CPU 501 such as IPL. A RAM 503 is used as a work area for the CPU 501 . The HD 504 stores various data such as programs. The HDD controller 505 controls reading or writing of various data to/from the HD 504 under the control of the CPU 501 . A display 506 displays various information such as cursors, menus, windows, characters, or images. The external device connection I/F 508 is an interface for connecting various external devices. The external device in this case is, for example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory, a printer, or the like. A network I/F 509 is an interface for data communication using the communication network 100 . A bus line 510 is an address bus, a data bus, or the like for electrically connecting each component such as the CPU 501 shown in FIG.

Also, the keyboard 511 is a kind of input means having a plurality of keys for inputting characters, numerical values, various instructions, and the like. A pointing device 512 is a kind of input means for selecting and executing various instructions, selecting a processing target, moving a cursor, and the like. A DVD-RW drive 514 controls reading or writing of various data to a DVD-RW 513 as an example of a removable recording medium. It should be noted that not only DVD-RW but also DVD-R or the like may be used. A media I/F 516 controls reading or writing (storage) of data to a recording medium 515 such as a flash memory.

In addition, although described as a client PC in the above, it is not limited to this, and may be used as a server.

FIG. 3 is an example of a functional block diagram of a client PC according to one embodiment of the present invention. The information processing apparatus of this embodiment includes an acquisition unit 101 , a generation unit 102 and a search unit 103 .

4 and 5 are flowcharts for explaining the system of this embodiment, and will be explained together with FIG. 5 differs from FIG. 4 in obtaining the subnet mask.

The acquisition unit 101 lists printer ports existing in the client PC and lists IP addresses associated with those printer ports. In this way, the IP address associated with the printer port is obtained (S101).

The generation unit 102 generates a broadcast address based on the IP address acquired by the acquisition unit 101 (S102). The method of generating the broadcast address can be changed as appropriate.

In this embodiment, the broadcast address can be calculated from each IP address and the subnet mask for that IP address. For example, it is possible to communicate with an image forming apparatus assigned to an IP address, acquire a subnet mask from the image forming apparatus, and generate a broadcast address using the subnet mask (S201).

Alternatively, a user-specified subnet mask may be used to generate the broadcast address. The subnet mask may be specified by the user by means other than the generator 102 .

Also, if the network is constructed according to company rules, such as an in-house network, there is a high possibility that the subnet mask will be the same. For example, a commonly used one such as "255.255.255.0" may be used.

The search unit 103 searches for a predetermined image forming apparatus connected to the network based on the broadcast address (S103). Also, the search results are displayed as needed.

Next, specific examples of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 8. FIG.

FIG. 6 is an example of an IP address acquired by the acquisition unit 101. As shown in FIG.
FIG. 6A is an example of listing information about printer ports in a PC. Printer ports include a TCP/IP port associated with an IP address and a port not associated with an IP address, such as a local port or USB port.

A PC (information processing device) according to the present embodiment has printer port information associated with an IP address. "Printer port information" includes at least a printer port name and a corresponding IP address. If there is no IP address corresponding to the printer port name, a value that can be used to determine that there is no corresponding IP address is used.

FIG. 6A is a diagram showing an example of printer port information. The information on the printer port may be stored in the information processing apparatus in the form of a table as shown in FIG. 6A, but is not limited to this. The information of each printer port may be stored separately, and may be stored in a table format by the acquisition unit 101, or in a table format by another means, or stored separately. In this state, the IP address may be acquired as shown in FIG. 6C described later. Also, the printer port (printer port name) and the IP address linked thereto may be stored in the same data or may be stored separately. It is sufficient if the printer port name and the corresponding IP address can be linked.

As described above, printer ports include various ports such as TCP/IP ports, local ports, and USB ports. These names may be changed as appropriate. In addition, although there is a possibility that the storage location and data format of information related to printer ports differ due to differences in OSs (Operating Systems) of information processing apparatuses, the present invention is applicable even if the OSs differ.

The obtaining unit 101 obtains an IP address from a port associated with the IP address among the enumerated printer ports, and generates a list of IP addresses. In the illustrated example, the IP address is acquired from the port associated with the IP address in FIG. 6A, and the list of IP addresses shown in FIG. 6B is generated.

At this time, it is preferable to avoid duplication of IP addresses. For example, since the IP addresses of "IP_10.60.100.201" and "PrinterC" are duplicated at "10.60.100.201", there is only one "10.60.100.201" as shown in Fig. 6(C). It is preferable to

In this manner, the acquisition unit 101 generates a list of IP addresses as shown in FIG. 6(C).

Next, a broadcast address is generated by the generation unit 102 based on the IP address acquired by the acquisition unit 101 . An example will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 7A shows a list of the IP addresses in FIG. 6C and their corresponding subnet masks. A subnet mask can be obtained by the method described above. In the example shown in FIG. 7A, a subnet mask corresponding to each IP address is obtained.
Note that the subnet mask can be obtained as "255.255.255.0" using the prefix display part such as "10.60.100.101/24".

Next, as shown in FIG. 7B, a broadcast address is generated from the subnet mask.
A general method can be used as a method of obtaining a broadcast address from an IP address and a subnet mask. For example, a network address may be obtained from an IP address and a subnet mask, the network address and subnet mask may be expressed in binary, and the 0 portion of the subnet mask may be set to 1 in the network address.

For example, in the first line in FIG. 7A, the IP address is "10.60.90.51", the subnet mask is "255.255.255.128", and the network address is "10.60.90.0". Further, from here, 128 in the subnet mask becomes 10000000 in binary notation, and if the 0 part is replaced with 1 in the network address, it becomes "10.60.90.127" and the broadcast address is obtained.

If there are duplicate broadcast addresses, it is preferable to remove the duplicates so that there is only one. For example, as shown in FIG. 7(C), it is preferable to delete the redundant "10.60.100.255". As a result, processing efficiency can be improved by deleting duplication.

Broadcast address generation basically uses all of the listed IP addresses for the broadcast address, but may be narrowed down as follows.
For example, by communicating with a printer (image forming apparatus) assigned to an IP address, the IP address of a printer that cannot communicate may be excluded. The communication means can be changed as appropriate. For example, ping may be used and limited to IP addresses with ping responses. If ping does not pass, it may be an unused area or an area where no printer exists, so excluding such IP addresses can improve processing efficiency.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing printers searched by the search unit 103. As shown in FIG.
8A to 8C show different networks (separate segments).
The addresses shown at the top of FIGS. 8A to 8C indicate network addresses and subnet masks. For example, in FIG. 8A, "10.60.90.0" indicates the network address and "255.255.255.128" indicates the subnet mask.

When the IP address of the PC is "10.60.90.77", only printer A is searched in the local network search, but printers B to D can be found according to this embodiment.

According to this embodiment, it is possible to identify the network of another segment where the printer exists based on the output destination IP address of the printer port in the PC, and search for printers other than the local network without user input. It can be performed.

It is highly probable that there are other printers on the network that include the IP address of the output destination of the printer port. Therefore, by using the printer port information, it is possible to identify the network where the printer is likely to exist without prompting the user for input.

Each function of the embodiments described above may be implemented by one or more processing circuits. Here, the "processing circuit" in this specification means a processor programmed by software to perform each function, such as a processor implemented by an electronic circuit, or a processor designed to perform each function described above. devices such as ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), DSPs (digital signal processors), FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) and conventional circuit modules.

101 acquisition unit 102 generation unit 103 search unit

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-174201

Claims (8)

An information processing device connectable to a network,
In addition to having information on a printer port associated with an IP address,
an acquisition unit that acquires an IP address associated with the printer port;
a generation unit that generates a broadcast address based on the IP address acquired by the acquisition unit;
a search unit that searches for an image forming apparatus connected to a network based on the broadcast address generated by the generation unit ;
The acquisition unit acquires a plurality of the IP addresses, and based on the acquired IP addresses, generates a list of IP addresses so that the IP addresses do not overlap,
The information processing apparatus, wherein the generating unit generates a broadcast address corresponding to each IP address in the list of IP addresses . 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the generated broadcast addresses are duplicated, the generating unit generates the broadcast addresses by deleting the duplicates. 2. The generating unit communicates with an image forming apparatus assigned to the IP address, acquires a subnet mask from the image forming apparatus, and uses the subnet mask to generate the broadcast address. 3. The information processing device according to 2 . 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the generation unit uses a subnet mask specified by a user to generate the broadcast address. 5. The generating unit communicates with the image forming apparatus assigned to the IP address, and generates the broadcast address by excluding IP addresses of image forming apparatuses that cannot communicate with the image forming apparatus. The information processing device according to . A program for a network connectable information processing device to search for an image forming device connected to the network, comprising:
The information processing device has printer port information associated with an IP address,
The program comprises: an acquisition unit that acquires an IP address associated with the printer port;
a generation unit that generates a broadcast address based on the IP address acquired by the acquisition unit; and
function as a search unit that searches for the image forming apparatus based on the broadcast address generated by the generation unit ;
The acquisition unit acquires a plurality of the IP addresses, and based on the acquired IP addresses, generates a list of IP addresses so that the IP addresses do not overlap,
The program , wherein the generating unit generates a broadcast address corresponding to each IP address in the list of IP addresses . A search method for searching an image forming apparatus connected to a network by an information processing apparatus connectable to a network, comprising:
The information processing device has printer port information associated with an IP address,
The search method is
an obtaining step of obtaining an IP address associated with the printer port;
a generating step of generating a broadcast address based on the IP address obtained by the obtaining step;
a searching step of searching for the image forming apparatus based on the broadcast address generated by the generating step ;
The obtaining step obtains a plurality of the IP addresses, generates a list of IP addresses based on the obtained IP addresses so that the IP addresses do not overlap,
The search method, wherein the generating step generates a broadcast address corresponding to each IP address in the list of IP addresses . A search system comprising an information processing device connectable to a network and an image forming device to be searched by the information processing device,
The information processing device has printer port information associated with an IP address,
The search system is
an acquisition unit that acquires an IP address associated with the printer port;
a generation unit that generates a broadcast address based on the IP address acquired by the acquisition unit;
a search unit that searches for the image forming apparatus based on the broadcast address generated by the generation unit ;
with
The acquisition unit acquires a plurality of the IP addresses, and based on the acquired IP addresses, generates a list of IP addresses so that the IP addresses do not overlap,
The search system , wherein the generating unit generates a broadcast address corresponding to each IP address in the list of IP addresses .

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