JPH1049458A - Printer and print system using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To evade unnecessary use and connection of a line by generating a communication list of computers which communicate and operate on a network according to origination source addresses and communication protocols, and controlling packet transmission by referring too this communication list when the packet is transmitted. SOLUTION: A plurality of computers 6 and printer 7 are connected through the network 5, and the computers 6 send packet data containing origination source addresses and communication protocols through the network 5. The printer 7 receives the said packet data through the network, generates the communication list 31 of computers 6 which communicate and operate on the network according to the origination source addresses and communication protocols in a storage device 3, and controls the packet communication by referring to the communication list 31 when the packet is transmitted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a printing apparatus connected to a network and a printing system using the same.

[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. In recent years, however, the printing apparatus has been connected to a plurality of computers via a network and has been directly connected to the printing apparatus by a plurality of computers. 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, the computer of the transmission destination is not activated or the transmission destination is a public line. If the printer is located at a remote location, the notification may be sent to the printing device without knowing where the notification destination computer is located or in what state.In such a case, the transmission from the printing device is performed over the public line. In some cases, the line is unnecessarily connected in the connection state.

[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 at an appropriate time.
An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus which can use a line without waste and a printing system using the same.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in a printing apparatus connected to a plurality of computers via a network, packet data including transmission source addresses and communication protocols transmitted from the plurality of computers is transmitted to the network. And a communication list of the plurality of computers that operate on the network is created based on the source address and the communication protocol, and the communication list is referred to when transmitting a packet. A printing apparatus characterized by performing transmission control is obtained.

According to the present invention, in the above printing apparatus, a network interface for transmitting and receiving packet data between a plurality of computers via a network, and a source address according to the contents of the packet data And communication including creation processing of a communication list based on a communication protocol, print instruction processing relating to print data, and transmission processing referring to a communication list for transmission data of one of a plurality of computers operating on a network. A printing device including a packet communication unit that performs processing and a storage device that stores a source address and a communication protocol as a communication list is obtained.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, there is provided a printing system in which any of the above printing apparatuses is connected to a plurality of computers via a network.

[0009]

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 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 via the network 5. send.

The printing device 7 receives, via the network 5, packet data including a source address and a communication protocol transmitted from the plurality of computers 6, and based on the source address and the communication protocol, among the plurality of computers 6. A communication list 31 of those operating by communicating on the network 5 is created in the storage device 3, and
Transmission control is performed by referring to the communication list 31 when transmitting a packet.

For this reason, the printing apparatus 7 has a network interface 1 for transmitting and receiving packet data to and from a plurality of computers 6 via the network 5, and operates under program control to respond to the contents of the packet data. A communication list 31 based on a source address and a communication protocol, a print instruction process related to print data, and communication on a network 5 among a plurality of computers 6 related to transmission data including notification required data or communication request data. A packet communication unit 2 that performs communication processing including transmission processing with reference to a communication list 31 for an operating one, and a storage device 3 that stores a source address and a communication protocol as a communication list 31 and stores other information. And a printer 4 that performs printing in accordance with a print instruction. It is provided.

A packet communication unit 2 analyzes a packet data received via the network interface 1 and controls and manages data in a communication list 31 of the storage device 3. 221, a communication list control unit 22 that periodically manages the communication list 31, a packet communication control unit 23 that performs communication control based on data of the communication list 31 when transmitting a packet from the printing apparatus 7, It has a packet data processing unit 24 for processing data and transferring it to the printer 4 if it is print data, and receiving packet data from the printer 4 and creating data for packet communication in response to the data.

The operation of such a printing system will be described on the assumption that a LAN (Ethernet) is used for the network 5, a TCP / IP is used for the communication protocol, and a RAM is used for 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 section 2, the packet communication monitoring section 21 analyzes which computer the input packet data is transmitted from, and what communication protocol is used, and analyzes 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 or not 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. If the packet is not addressed to itself, the processing is immediately terminated.

Next, a description will be given, with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. 3, of an operation process in the printing apparatus 7 when transmitting packet data transmitted from the printing apparatus 7 via the network 5 to specific ones of a plurality of computers 6. I do.

Here, when some trouble occurs in the printer 4 to generate notification required data, or when communication request data indicating a request for information on the state of the printer 4 and print history is received from the computer, packet data The processing unit 24 receives notification required data and communication request data from the printer 4 as transmission data (step S1),
The packet data is created (step S2). here,
The created packet data is transferred to the packet communication control unit 23, and the packet communication control unit 23
The communication destination corresponding to No. 1 is registered, and a communication list for confirming whether the communication destination exists on the network 5 is checked (Step S
Perform 3).

Subsequently, the packet communication control unit 23 determines whether or not the communication list 31 has a source address (step S4), and if the source address is in the communication list 31, performs packet transmission (step S5). However, if the transmission source address is not in the communication list 31, the processing is terminated 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 error information from the printer 4 is sent from the printing apparatus 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 based on 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 device 7 and stored in the communication list 31. FIG. 4 (a) relates to the 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.

Regarding 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 packet data is received by the printing apparatus 7, 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 the packet data by the printing device 7, the packet communication control unit 23 changes the transmission address from the transmission source address of the specific computer 6 which is the transmission destination to “7E000”, for example.
108 "in the communication list 31. At this time, if the address of the computer 6 is registered with reference to both of the two lists in the communication list 31, as described in FIG. The packet data is transmitted to the corresponding computer 6 on the network 5 via the network interface 1. If the packet data is not registered in any of the lists, the computer 6 is regarded as not operating on the network 5 and the transmission is performed. Stop.

[0029]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, communication on a network is monitored, and packet data including a source address and a communication protocol of a computer operating on the network is received and analyzed. A communication list is created by storing the packet and sending the packet to the computer operating on the network by referring to the communication list when transmitting the packet, and not transmitting the packet to the computer not operating For control, information can be transmitted at an appropriate time to avoid unnecessary use or connection of the line, and the line can be used without waste. Further, in a printing system in which a printing apparatus is connected to a plurality of computers via a network, useless transmission to a network or a line is eliminated, and utilization efficiency is improved. In particular, when connected to a public line or the like, 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 packet data from the printing apparatus to a specific one of a plurality of computers via the 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]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Network interface 2 Packet communication part 3 Storage device 4 Printer 5 Network 6 Computer 7 Printing device 21 Packet communication monitoring part 22 Communication list control part 23 Packet communication control part 24 Packet data processing part 31 Communication list 221 Timer

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus connected to a plurality of computers via a network, receives packet data including a source address and a communication protocol transmitted from the plurality of computers via the network, and A communication list is created for one of the plurality of computers, which communicates and operates on the network, based on the address and the communication protocol, and transmission control is performed by referring to the communication list when transmitting a packet. Printing device. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a network interface for transmitting and receiving the packet data to and from the plurality of computers via the network, and The communication list creation processing based on the source address and the communication protocol, the print instruction processing relating to print data, and the communication list relating to transmission data of one of the plurality of computers which communicates and operates on the network. A packet communication unit that performs communication processing including the transmission processing described above, and a storage device that stores the source address and the communication protocol as the communication list. 3. A printing system comprising the printing apparatus according to claim 1 connected to the plurality of computers via the network.