Patent ID: 8180876

Claim:
A device manager comprising: a transmission unit that transmits, to a plurality of devices connected to a network, a broadcast command which requests management information that is stored in and unique to each device for use in communication using a first communication protocol that enables communication using authenticated and encrypted data; a receiving unit that receives a response from the plurality of devices in response to the broadcast command, wherein the plurality of devices comprises at least one device having a device-unique management information and at least one device not having device-unique management information; a determination unit that determines whether the plurality of devices are devices to be managed, on the basis of the management information received from the plurality of devices in response to the broadcast command, wherein the determination unit executes a determination process on each of the at least one device having the device-unique management information; an information acquisition unit that transmits, using the first communication protocol, to the devices determined by the determination unit to be devices to be managed among the plurality of devices, read data for reading information about the device, thereby acquiring information about each of the devices to be managed, and that collectively transmits the read data to all devices not having device-unique management information, using a second communication protocol that does not use authenticated and encrypted data, thereby collectively acquiring information about each of the at least one device having no device-unique management information; a list preparation unit that prepares a device management list showing information acquired by the information acquisition unit about the devices to be managed; and a list display unit that displays the device management list prepared by the list preparation unit, wherein, of the information about devices acquired by the information acquisition unit, the list preparation unit prepares the device management list of all the devices whose information is acquired using the first protocol, and prepares the device management list of the devices whose information is acquired using the second protocol only for the devices to be managed.