Network system and peripheral
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMasatoshi KADOTA
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A network system is made up of a plurality of PCs, a printer a server, and the like. The printer selects one PC from among the plurality of PCs as a firmware provider. Accordingly, if there are two or more PCs that can communicate with the printer, only one PC communicates with the server at the same time. Thus, to retrieve firmware from the server, a plurality of PCs can be prevented from communicating with the server at the same time, so that concentration of access to the server can be suppressed. Therefore, an increase in the network traffic can be suppressed.
Claims19
A network system comprising a server, a plurality of computers that can communicate with the server through a first network, and a peripheral that can communicate with the plurality of computers through a second network,
- wherein the server comprises a firmware storage unit which stores a firmware,
- wherein the peripheral comprises:
- a selection unit which selects one computer from among the plurality of computers;
- a providing request transmission unit which communicates with the computer selected by the selection unit, and transmits a request for providing the firmware to the selected computer;
- and
- an update unit which updates the firmware of the peripheral,
- wherein each of the plurality of computers comprises:
- a firmware retrieving unit which retrieves the firmware stored in the firmware storage unit of the server by communicating with the server upon reception of the providing request from the providing request transmission unit;
- and
- a firmware providing unit which provides the firmware retrieved by the firmware retrieving unit by communicating with the peripheral transmitting the providing request, and
- wherein the update unit of the peripheral updates the firmware of the peripheral to the firmware provided by the firmware providing unit.
A peripheral connected to and communicating with a plurality of computers that can communicate with a server through a network, the peripheral comprising:
- a selection unit which selects one computer from among the plurality of computers;
- a providing request transmission unit which transmits a request for providing a firmware to the selected computer;
- and
- an update unit which retrieves the firmware from the computer and updates the firmware of the peripheral to the received firmware.
A method of updating a firmware of a peripheral connected to and communicating with a plurality of computers that can communicate through a network with a server storing a firmware, the method comprising:
- selecting one computer from among the plurality of computers by the peripheral;
- transmitting a request for providing the firmware to the selected computer from the peripheral;
- retrieving the firmware from the server by the selected computer upon reception of the providing request from the peripheral;
- providing the retrieved firmware from the selected computer to the peripheral;
- updating the firmware of the peripheral to the firmware provided by the selected computer.
A peripheral comprising:
- a communicating unit configured to communicate with a plurality of computers;
- a storage unit for storing a firmware;
- and
- a controller connected to the communicating unit and the storage unit,
- wherein the controller selects one computer from among the plurality of computers communicable via the communicating unit, the controller communicates with the one computer to retrieve a firmware from the one computer via the communicating unit, and the controller stores the firmware retrieved from the one computer in the storage unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.