Patent ID: 7447757

Claim:
A peripheral device which can communicate with a plurality of client devices and with a proxy response server connected to a network, comprising: notification means for notifying the proxy response server connectable to the network of a sleep mode transition request when the peripheral device changes from a normal data processing wait status to a sleep mode; reception means for receiving a sleep release request from the proxy response server based on a network packet indicating a discovery request for a peripheral device which has transitioned to a sleep mode issued by any client device connected to the network after the proxy response server receives the sleep mode transition request from said notification means, wherein the network packet is for a predetermined multicast address set for a plurality of peripheral devices; and control means for releasing the sleep mode and returning to a normal data processing wait status when said reception means receives the sleep release request, wherein the multicast address for a discovery request for peripheral devices in a sleep status is different from a multicast address for a discovery request for peripheral devices in a normal status.