JPH1155489A - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To use a facsimile apparatus having a LAN function by connecting to both a normal telephone line and a LAN.
To enable efficient use. SOLUTION: The facsimile apparatus having a LAN function has a storage means 8 for storing an information table relating to a telephone number and a LAN function, and by referring to this table, mutual communication between a telephone line and a LAN is possible. A facsimile machine that can switch communication.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly to a facsimile apparatus having a LAN function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a system is constructed by connecting a plurality of devices such as a facsimile machine and a personal computer via a network, and information is shared among the plurality of devices. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-227
In the facsimile apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 340,
Information such as a telephone number is registered and read out with another facsimile machine via a system management facsimile machine.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems. That is, in the above prior art, no consideration is given to efficient use when the facsimile apparatus is connected to both a normal telephone line and a LAN and used. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an easy-to-use facsimile apparatus which solves the above-mentioned problems in the prior art. More specifically, an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile machine that can achieve the following objects. A first object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile apparatus having a LAN function, which can cope with a case where a LAN line is used to reduce a communication fee. A second object is to prepare a server in which correlation information between a telephone number and a LAN is registered, thereby eliminating the need for a user to register a telephone number and a corresponding LAN address for each facsimile machine. . A third object is to eliminate the user's registration work on the management server by registering information found at the time of communication in the server after communication is completed. A fourth object is to reduce the probability of failure in communication between facsimile apparatuses having a LAN function by automatically selecting the other party even if communication fails in one of the telephone line and the LAN. That is. A fifth object is to automatically notify a user of a failure of a LAN or a telephone line, which is currently being checked by an LCD, an LED, or the like of a facsimile apparatus and notified to a service center or the like.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide an L
A facsimile apparatus having an AN function, having a storage means 8 for storing information relating to a telephone number and a LAN function.
This is achieved by a facsimile apparatus which enables mutual communication switching between the facsimile apparatus.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an outline of a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration thereof. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a document sensor for detecting a document and checking a document jam or the like;
Is a paper sensor for checking paper position, paper jam, etc., 3
Is a battery for backing up a parameter memory 8 for storing a telephone number, a name of a destination, etc., 4 is a scanner for reading an original image and extracting image information, 5 is a plotter for recording image information, and 6 is a plotter for recording image information. The state of the device,
An operation display unit that displays operation guidance and performs various operations on the device.

Reference numeral 7 denotes an image memory used for storing image data, 8 denotes a parameter memory (RAM) for storing parameters such as telephone numbers, 9 denotes a clock circuit used for transmission and the like, and 10 denotes a network control device. A communication control unit for performing facsimile communication according to a predetermined transmission procedure by controlling a modem and a modem; 11, an encoding / decoding unit for encoding image information to be transmitted and decoding a received document; A CPU for executing a predetermined operation of the facsimile apparatus, a ROM 13 for storing a program required for the operation of the facsimile apparatus, and a RAM 14 for storing data required for operating the program.

A character generator 15 stores character font data such as alphanumeric characters, kana, symbols, and kanji used for printing, and 16 transmits and modulates and demodulates image information. A modem that transmits signals and is connected to a telephone line. 1
Reference numeral 7 denotes a network control device for performing predetermined calling and receiving operations by capturing a line, transmitting a selection signal as a destination telephone number, and detecting an incoming call, and 18 denotes a LAN board for performing LAN communication. Connected to a leased line. The above components are mutually connected via a bus 19.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the registered data contents of the telephone number / LAN information stored in the parameter memory 8. Here, in the case of a facsimile apparatus having a LAN function, a telephone number and LAN information (e-mail) are stored. In the case of a normal facsimile machine, only the telephone number is registered. If the other party is a terminal such as a PC (personal computer), only e-mail is registered. In the case of the present embodiment, this registration information is to be registered by the user using a function.

First, the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. When the user attempts to make a call by designating a telephone number (step 21), the CPU 1
2 retrieves the telephone number / LAN information data (see FIG. 3) stored in the parameter memory 8 (step 22). When the phone number you are trying to send is registered and there is LAN information corresponding to that phone number
In (Step 23), the data is transmitted not from the telephone line but from the LAN line (Step 24). If the user does not make a call by designating a telephone number, the process ends. Also,
When an attempt is made to make a call by specifying a telephone number, the data corresponding to the telephone number
If there is no information, transmission is performed from the telephone line.

According to the present embodiment, if the facsimile machine of the transmission destination has both a telephone line and a LAN address, and the information is registered in the calling facsimile machine, the calling user Even if a telephone line is specified, there is an effect that the communication fee can be reduced by preferentially selecting the LAN. Further, even when the performance of the modem of the facsimile apparatus is poor and communication time is long, there is a cost advantage by using the LAN line.

Next, an embodiment of the invention according to claim 2 will be described. FIG. 4 shows a system configuration of an embodiment of the invention according to claim 2, and FIG. 5 shows an operation flow thereof. As shown in FIG. 4, the system according to the present embodiment is configured such that facsimile apparatuses 32 and 33 are connected to a server 31 in which telephone numbers and LAN information are registered. The facsimile machine 32 (or 33) accesses the server 31 at a predetermined time (step 4 in FIG. 5).
1) The latest information is read out and copied to the parameter memory 8 of the own facsimile machine (step 42) for use.

The server 31 includes a PC, a WS, and the like.
(Workstation), facsimile machine, etc. According to the present embodiment, the user can register for each facsimile machine by accessing the server in which the telephone number and the corresponding LAN address are registered in advance and extracting the information. Can be eliminated.

FIG. 6 shows an operation flow of the third embodiment of the present invention. When the facsimile apparatus 32 shown in FIG. 4 performs communication via a telephone line or a LAN line
(Step 51) After the completion of the communication, the information found at that time is registered in the server (Step 52). For example, LAN
When the communication with the facsimile machine having the function is performed and the LAN information corresponding to the telephone number is found, the information is registered.
If the other party is an ordinary facsimile machine, only the telephone number information is registered. According to the present embodiment, by automatically registering the information of the function of the partner that is known during the protocol when the facsimile apparatus performs transmission and reception to the management server, it is possible to eliminate the user's registration work from the next time. effective.

Next, an embodiment of the invention according to claim 4 will be described based on the operation flow shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, when communication is not achieved due to failure of a specified number of calls in a facsimile apparatus connected to a telephone line and a LAN line (step 61), the communication is stored in the parameter memory 8. The data of the telephone number / LAN information described above is searched (step 62), and it is checked whether the called party is registered. Destination phone number and LAN
If the information has been registered, the information of the non-delivered line is read out, the destination information is rewritten, and the call is started again.

That is, if the transmission via the telephone line is unreachable, the LAN information corresponding to the telephone line is read out (steps 63 and 64), and the transmission via the LAN line is unreachable. For example, information on the telephone line corresponding to the LAN line is read out (steps 63 and 67), and if there is registration information, transmission is performed on the line other than the unreachable line based on the information (step 65). , 6
6). According to the present embodiment, in communication between facsimile machines having a LAN function, a telephone line is automatically selected when the condition of the LAN line is bad, and a line to be used is automatically selected when the condition of the telephone line is bad. And the probability of non-delivery can be reduced.

Next, an embodiment of the invention according to claim 5 will be described based on the operation flow shown in FIG. The facsimile machine has a means to detect the failure of the LAN board,
When it is determined that a LAN failure has occurred (step 7
1) The destination of a telephone line registered in advance, such as a service center, is read out (step 72), and a report for notifying a failure is transmitted there (step 73). According to this embodiment, it is possible to automatically notify the user of a LAN abnormality which has been notified by the user through a telephone line.

Next, an embodiment of the invention according to claim 6 will be described based on the operation flow shown in FIG. The facsimile apparatus is provided with means for detecting a failure of the NCU board, and when it is determined that a failure of the NCU has occurred (step 81), the information of the LAN line (e
-Mail or the like is read (step 82), and a report for notifying a failure is transmitted there (step 83). According to the present embodiment, it is possible to automatically notify the user of a telephone line abnormality which has been notified by the user through a LAN line.

Although there is a facsimile apparatus having an auto service call function at present,
If the NCU breaks down, there is no communication means and it is not possible to automatically notify the service center.
According to the above embodiment, it is possible to automatically notify the user via the LAN line. FIG.
13 shows an example of a report output in the embodiment of the invention according to claim 6. This report shall transmit the user identification information, the failed part, the current system parameters, and the like.

The above embodiment is merely an example of the present invention, and it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this. For example, in the above embodiment, the case where the LAN is connected in addition to the telephone line has been described, but it is easily understood that other dedicated lines can be used.

[0020]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, there is a remarkable effect of realizing the following.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment according to claim 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of registered data contents of a telephone number and LAN information.

FIG. 4 is an image diagram of an embodiment according to claim 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment according to claim 2;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment according to claim 3;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an outline of a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment according to claim 4;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment according to claim 5;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment according to claim 6;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a report automatically transmitted in the embodiment according to claims 5 and 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Original sensor 2 Paper sensor 3 Battery 4 Scanner 5 Plotter 6 Operation display unit 7 Image memory 8 Parameter memory 9 Clock circuit 10 Communication control unit 11 Encoding / decoding unit 12 CPU 13 ROM 14 RAM 15 Character generator 16 Modem 17 Network control unit 18 LAN board 19 bus

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04N 1/00 106 H04N 1/00 107Z 107 H04L 11/00 310Z

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus having a LAN function, comprising: means for storing a telephone number and information relating to a LAN function; and means for registering this information by means of a function. A facsimile apparatus which transmits image information via a LAN instead of a telephone line when the apparatus has a LAN function. 2. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information on the telephone number and the LAN function is shared among a plurality of facsimile apparatuses. 3. The telephone number and LA according to claim 1 or 2.
A facsimile apparatus which is connected to a server which manages information relating to N functions, and which registers transmission / reception destination information in the server when transmission / reception is performed. 4. A facsimile machine having a LAN function, means for storing information relating to a telephone number and a LAN function, means for registering this information by a function, and transmission over a telephone line when the state of the LAN is not normal. A facsimile apparatus having switching means for transmitting data over a LAN line when the state of the telephone line is not normal. 5. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when the state of the LAN is not normal, a report for notifying the destination of the telephone number registered in advance of the abnormality is transmitted. 6. If the state of the telephone line is not normal,
5. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a report notifying the abnormality is transmitted to a previously registered LAN destination. [0001]