Address information display system and address information display program

• US 20060067343A1
• Filed: 09/28/2005
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Inventors: Tagawa, Norio, Otsuka, Naoki
• Granted Patent: US 7,644,154 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming

Abstract

When a management PC (as an address information display device in an address information display system) displays IPv6 addresses that have been assigned to a device in the system, the addresses may be displayed in a pull-down menu, for example. The display order in the pull-down menu may be determined according to a priority order which can be set arbitrarily by the user. Further, addresses judged to be important (according to settings by the user) may be displayed using a bold font, local addresses are displayed in italic, addresses close to the expiration of term of validity may be grayed out) and invalid addresses (addresses already expired) may be grayed out with strikethroughs. As a result, an address information display system may be realized that is capable of displaying addresses assigned to a device in a style easy for the user to understand.

Claims

1. An address information display system which is configured so that at least a first node included in a plurality of nodes forming a network will function as an address information display device capable of displaying address information for an address assigned to a device connected to the network, comprising:

an address information storage unit configured to store the address information while storing a plurality of pieces of address information corresponding to a plurality of addresses assigned to a device;

a judgment unit for judging whether an address assigned to the device is in a usable state based on the address information stored in the address information storage unit while judging whether each of a plurality of addresses of the device is in the usable state based on a corresponding piece of address information; and

a display unit for displaying at least one address of the device judged by the judgment unit to be in the usable state when such an address exists while one of displaying each address of the device judged by the judgment unit to be in the unusable state in a display style different from a display style of the address judged to be in the usable state and not displaying each address judged to be in the unusable state.

2. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein the address information includes validity term information regarding a term of validity which has been set to the address corresponding to the address information, and

wherein the judgment unit judges that an address is in the usable state if the term of validity set to the address has not expired yet based on the validity term information while judging that the address is in the unusable state if the term of validity has already expired based on the validity term information.

3. The address information display system according to claim 2,

wherein the address information storage unit stores the address information corresponding to an address until a prescribed time period passes following the expiration of the term of validity set to the address.

4. The address information display system according to claim 2,

wherein the address information storage unit stores the address information corresponding to an address until the address information is read out a prescribed number of times following the expiration of the term of validity set to the address.

5. The address information display system according to claim 1, further comprising a message output unit configured to output a message when an address is judged by the judgment unit to be in the unusable state.

6. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein the address information includes first communication possibility information indicating whether the address corresponding to the address information is an address allowing communication with the first node, and

wherein the judgment unit judges that an address is in the usable state if the address allows communication with the first node based on the first communication possibility information while judging that the address is in the unusable state if the address does not allow communication with the first node based on the first communication possibility information.

7. The address information display system according to claim 6,

wherein the first communication possibility information is information indicating whether the address corresponding to the address information is a destination address contained in an SNMP request transmitted from the first node.

8. The address information display system according to claim 6,

wherein the first communication possibility information is information indicating whether the address corresponding to the address information is an address in the same local area network as the first node.

9. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein the address information includes second communication possibility information indicating whether the address corresponding to the address information is an address allowing communication with a second node different from the first node, and

wherein the judgment unit judges that an address is in the usable state if the address allows communication with the second node based on the second communication possibility information while judging that the address is in the unusable state if the address does not allow communication with the second node based on the second communication possibility information.

10. The address information display system according to claim 9,

wherein the second communication possibility information included in the address information indicates that the address corresponding to the address information is an address allowing communication with the second node if the address corresponding to the address information is an address of the device which has been used for communication between the second node and the device using a printing protocol.

11. The address information display system according to claim 6,

wherein the display unit displays each address judged by the judgment unit to be in the unusable state in a display style different from a display style of the address judged to be in the usable state.

12. The address information display system according to claim 6,

wherein the display unit does not display each address judged by the judgment unit to be in the unusable state.

13. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein the address information includes communication protocol information capable of specifying a communication protocol that uses the address corresponding to the address information, and

wherein the judgment unit judges that an address is in the usable state if the address is used by a communication protocol supported by both devices communicating with each other based on the communication protocol information while judging that the address is not in the usable state if the address is used by a communication protocol not supported by both devices communicating with each other based on the communication protocol information.

14. The address information display system according to claim 13,

wherein the address information on the device includes a plurality of pieces of address information corresponding to the plurality of addresses used by different communication protocols,

wherein the judgment unit judges whether each of the addresses of the device is in the usable state based on the corresponding piece of address information in regard to each of the different communication protocols, and

wherein the display unit displays addresses judged by the judgment unit to be in the usable state in regard to each of the different communication protocols.

15. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein the address information on the device includes the plurality of pieces of address information corresponding to the plurality of addresses used by the same communication protocol, and

wherein the judgment unit judges whether each of the addresses of the device is in the usable state or not based on the corresponding piece of address information.

16. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein, when addresses of the device judged by the judgment unit to be in the usable state include a static address which is not changed unless manually changed by a user, the display unit displays one or more of the addresses including at least the static address.

17. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein, when there are two or more addresses of the device judged by the judgment unit to be in the usable state, the display unit displays all the addresses.

18. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein, when addresses of the device judged by the judgment unit to be in the usable state include a wide area network address which allows communication with a node outside a local area network, the display unit displays one or more of the addresses including at least the wide area network address.

19. The address information display system according to claim 1,

wherein, when addresses of the device judged by the judgment unit to be in the usable state include the address that the device last used for communication, the display unit displays one or more of the addresses including at least the address last used for communication.

20. The address information display system according to claim 1, further comprising a display condition storage unit for storing a display condition which can be set arbitrarily by a user,

wherein when addresses of the device judged by the judgment unit to be in the usable state include an address satisfying the display condition stored in the display condition storage unit, the display unit displays one or more of the addresses including at least the address satisfying the display condition.

21. An address information display system which is configured so that at least a first node included in a plurality of nodes forming a network will function as an address information display device capable of displaying address information for an address assigned to a device connected to the network, comprising:

an address information storage unit configured to store the address information while storing a plurality of pieces of address information on a device;

a judgment unit for judging whether each address corresponding to each piece of address information is a static address which does not change unless manually changed by a user based on a corresponding piece of address information stored in the address information storage unit; and

a display unit for displaying at least an address of the device judged by the judgment unit to be a static address when such an address exists while one of displaying each address of the device judged by the judgment unit not to be a static address in a display style different from a display style of the address judged to be a static address and not displaying each address judged not to be a static address.

22. The address information display system according to claim 21,

wherein the display unit does not display each address judged by the judgment unit not to be a static address.

23. The address information display system according to claim 21,

wherein the display unit displays each address judged by the judgment unit not to be a static address in a display style different from a display style of the address judged to be a static address.

24. The address information display system according to claim 21,

wherein when an address judged by the judgment unit to be a static address exists, the display unit displays one or more addresses including at least the static address.

25. The address information display system according to claim 21,

wherein when there are two or more addresses judged by the judgment unit to be static addresses, the display unit first displays only one of the static addresses and thereafter displays two or more static address when a prescribed operation is performed by a user.

26. A computer-program product comprising computer-readable instructions that cause at least a first node included in a plurality of nodes forming a network to function as an address information display device which displays address information for an address assigned to a device connected to the network, wherein the computer-readable instructions cause the first node to execute:

an address information acquisition step for obtaining the address information on the device from one of the nodes forming the network while obtaining the plurality of pieces of address information when there are a plurality of pieces of address information on the device;

a judgment step of judging whether an address assigned to the device is in a usable state based on the address information obtained in the address information acquisition step while judging whether each of a plurality of addresses of the device is in the usable state based on the corresponding piece of address information when a plurality of pieces of address information on the device have been obtained in the address information acquisition step; and

a display step for displaying at least one address of the device judged by the judgment step to be in the usable state when such an address exists while one of displaying each address of the device judged by the judgment step to be in the unusable state in a display style different from that of the address judged to be in the usable state and not displaying each address judged to be in the unusable state.

27. A computer program product comprising computer-readable instructions that cause at least a first node included in a plurality of nodes forming a network to function as an address information display device which displays address information for an address assigned to a device connected to the network, wherein the computer-readable instructions cause the first node to execute:

an address information acquisition step of obtaining the address information on a device from one of the nodes forming the network while obtaining a plurality of pieces of address information when there are a plurality of pieces of address information on the device;

a judgment step of judging whether an address assigned to the device is a static address which does not change unless manually changed by a user based on the address information obtained in the address information acquisition step while judging whether each of a plurality of addresses of the device is a static address based on a corresponding piece of address information when a plurality of pieces of address information on the device have been obtained in the address information acquisition step; and

a display step for displaying at least one address of the device judged by the judgment step to be a static address when such an address exists while one of displaying each address of the device judged by the judgment step not to be a static address in a display style different from that of the address judged to be a static address and not displaying each address judged not to be a static address.