Data communication apparatus, data communication system, data communication method, control program, and computer readable storage medium stored with control program

A data transmission apparatus with a first transmission means for transmitting data via Internet and a second transmission means for transmitting data using facsimile protocol via telephone line, said data transmission apparatus comprising:

• a first destination setting means for setting a first destination related to said first transmission means;
• a second destination setting means for setting a second destination related to said second transmission means;
• a multicasting means for multicasting data to the first destination and the second destination using said first transmission means and said second transmission means;
• and
• a destination adding means for adding second destination information to data being transmitted to the first destination, and adding first destination information to data being transmitted to the second destination when multicasting transmission is executed using said first transmission means and said second transmission means.

A data communication system comprising:

• a plurality of kinds of equipment corresponding to different communication systems;
• and
• a data communication apparatus for multicasting specific data to said equipment, wherein said data communication apparatus comprises a transmission means for multicasting the specific data to said equipment, a receiving means for receiving response data transmitted by some of said equipment in response to the multicasted specific data, a response data transmission means for multicasting the response data to response destinations that include some of or all of said equipment, and a conversion means for converting the specific data and the response data to data of a plurality of kinds of formats corresponding to communication systems to which said equipment correspond, and
• each of said equipment comprises a multicasting transmission data receiving means for receiving the specific data multicasted by said transmission means of said data communication apparatus, and an equipment response data transmission means for transmitting the response data corresponding to the multicasted specific data to said data communication apparatus.

A data communication method comprising the steps of:

• converting a specific data into data of a plurality of kinds of formats used by data communication systems corresponding to a plurality of destinations to which the specific data is multicasted;
• multicasting the specific data converted into the plurality of kinds of formats to the destinations;
• receiving response data transmitted from some of the destinations in response to the multicasted specific data;
• converting the response data into data of a plurality of kinds of formats corresponding to communication systems to which response destinations including some of or all of the destinations correspond;
• and
• multicasting the response data converted into data of a plurality of kinds of formats to a plurality of response destinations.

A control program stored on a computer readable medium for causing a computer to execute process of the steps of:

• multicasting specific data to a plurality of destinations corresponding to different communication systems;
• receiving response data transmitted from some of the destinations in response to the multicasted specific data;
• multicasting the response data to response destinations including some of or all of the destinations to which the specific data was multicasted in said step of multicasting specific data;
• and
• converting the specific data and the response data to data of a plurality of kinds of formats corresponding to communication systems to which the destinations and the response destinations correspond.

A data transmission apparatus comprising:

• a first transmission unit which transmits data via Internet;
• a second transmission unit which transmits data using facsimile protocol via a telephone line;
• a user interface from which a user sets a first destination and a second destination for multicasting, wherein said first transmission unit and said second transmission unit are respectively used for the first destination and the second destination when multicasting;
• a controller which sends data to which information regarding the second destination is added by using said first transmission unit, and sends data to which information on the first destination is added by using said second transmission unit.

A data communication apparatus comprising:

• a transmission unit which multicasts specific data to a plurality of destinations corresponding to different communication systems;
• a receiving unit which receives response data transmitted by some of the destinations in response to the multicasted specific data;
• a response data transmission unit which multicasts the response data to response destinations that include some of or all of the destinations to which the specific data was multicasted by said transmission unit;
• and
• a conversion unit for converting the specific data and the response data to data of a plurality of kinds of formats corresponding to communication systems to which the destinations and the response destinations respectively correspond.

A data communication system comprising:

• a plurality of kinds of equipment corresponding to different communication systems;
• and
• a data communication apparatus for multicasting specific data to said equipment, wherein
• said data communication apparatus comprises a transmission unit which multicasts the specific data to said equipment, a receiving unit which receives response data transmitted by some of said equipment in response to the multicasted specific data, a response data transmission unit which multicasts the response data to response destinations that include some of or all of said equipment, and a conversion unit which converts the specific data and the response data to data of a plurality of kinds of formats corresponding to communication systems to which said equipment correspond, and
• each of said equipment comprises a multicasting transmission data receiving unit which receives the specific data multicasted by said transmission unit of said data communication apparatus, and an equipment response data transmission unit which transmits the response data corresponding to the multicasted specific data to said data communication apparatus.