1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to an address information display system and an address information display program for displaying addresses that have been assigned to a device.
2. Related Art
Basic techniques for classifying IP addresses into several groups have been widely known as described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2002-198997 (hereinafter referred to as JP publication No. 2002-198997) and Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2001-188732 (hereinafter referred to as JP publication No. 2001-188732).
For example, JP publication No. 2002-198997 describes a technique for classifying collected IP addresses depending on the domain (to which each IP address belongs) and thereby identifying a domain from which access is made frequently. JP publication No. 2002-198997 describes a technique for classifying received IP addresses depending on the domain and thereby sending back data corresponding to the domain to the source (sender) of each IP address.
However, JP publications No. 2002-198997 and No. 2001-188732 only attempt to classify addresses corresponding to the total number of devices (considering only one address assigned to each device), with no proposal of a technique for classifying multiple addresses assigned to one device.
While a communication protocol IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) has been used so far in the Internet, a next-generation protocol called IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is being introduced today. Under such circumstances, among devices connectable to a network (e.g. printers), those supporting both IPv4/IPv6 and those supporting IPv6 only (hereinafter collectively referred to as “IPv6 devices”) are being put on the market in addition to conventional devices supporting IPv4 only. Such IPv6 devices are expected to increase rapidly in years to come.
Since the IPv6 standard allows for multiple addresses to be assigned to one device, an IPv6 device can have two or more addresses. A device supporting both IPv4/IPv6 has an IPv4 address in addition to the IPv6 address(es).
Therefore, when information on addresses assigned to an IPv6 device is displayed on a screen of a PC (Personal Computer) for example, simply displaying a random list (in which addresses assigned to an IPv6 device are arranged randomly) might be confusing to the user.
Especially, since IPv6 addresses include various types (addresses that become invalid when an expiration date comes, addresses having no expiration date, addresses differing in the area (extent) of the effective communication scope, etc.), if a random list of such IPv6 addresses is displayed on the screen, the user might be unable to recognize whether an address has an expiration date, whether an address having an expiration date is still valid, whether an address is usable in an intended communication scope etc.