polling signal is a signal that inquires if there is a demand to transmit to the printer 20 according to the present exemplary embodiment there are two types in the polling signal namely one to be transmitted to the management server 30 at a predetermined period and one to be transmitted to the management server 30 at a transmission timing that is designated by the management server 30 then the communication unit 200 may receive a reply signal for the transmitted polling signal from the management server 30 the details of the reply signal from the management server 30 will be described later in addition the communication unit 200 may receive the data of a print job from a client computer not illustrated or the like to be connected to the local area network 40 other than the above described communication processing the control unit 202 may include a central processor and may control each unit of the printer 20 the control unit 202 may also control the image forming processing to be made in the image forming unit 204 the control unit 202 may carry out raster processing of the print data that is received from the client computer in the communication unit 200 so as to generate bitmap data then the control unit 202 may transfer the generated bit map data to the image forming unit 204 in addition the control unit 202 may transmission of the polling signal to be transmitted to the management server 30 according to the present invention as control of the polling signal at least the transmission timing may be controlled the transmission timing of the polling signal by the printer 20 may be determined in accordance with a control signal that is included in a reply.