Communication control apparatus for monitoring a condition of a machine and for transmittiing the condition to an external apparatus

A copying apparatus comprising:

• copy control means for controlling a copy operation;
• communication control means for controlling communications between said copy control means and a communication network;
• defective communication detecting means for detecting a malfunction in said communication control means;
• and
• warning display means for displaying a warning when said defective communication detecting means detects a malfunction in said communication control means.

A power supply control apparatus comprising:

• input means or receiving data from a machine, the data being indicative of a condition of the machine;
• detecting means for detecting whether the machine is being supplied with electric power from a main power supply;
• communication means for communicating between said input means and an external apparatus installed at a position separate from the machine;
• a spare power supply, separate from the main power supply, for supplying the machine with electric power;
• and
• control means for controlling said spare power supply to supply the machine with electric power, enabling the machine to transmit the data to the external apparatus, in response to a request for data transmission received while said detecting means detects that the machine is not being supplied with electric power from the main power supply.

A machine monitoring apparatus comprising:

• input means for receiving data from a machine, the data being indicative of a condition of the machine;
• detecting means for detecting whether the machine is being supplied with electric power;
• storage means for storing the received data;
• communication means for communicating between said storage means and an external apparatus installed at a position separate from the machine;
• and
• control means for storing in said storage means an indication that a request for transmitting the data has been generated, in response to a request for transmitting the data received while said detecting means detects that the machine is not being supplied with electric power.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• image forming control means for controlling an image forming operation;
• communication control means for controlling communications between said image forming apparatus and a communication network;
• defective communication detecting means for detecting a malfunction in said communication control means;
• and
• warning display means for displaying a warning when said defective communication detecting means detects a malfunction in said communication control means.