Patent ID: 7542158

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a memory device; an image forming device; an input device which directs operations to the image forming device; a communication part configured to communicate with external apparatuses; a managed object specifying part configured to specify managed object apparatuses that are managed by the image forming apparatus through the communication part; an apparatus correspondence communication condition acquiring part configured to receive via said communication part information regarding communication conditions corresponding to the managed object apparatuses which the managed object specifying part specified, and configured to store in the memory device the received information regarding communication conditions by relating to identification information of the managed object apparatuses; an apparatus monitoring part configured to refer to the communication conditions stored in said memory device on an individual managed object apparatus basis so as to acquire state information via said communication part on an individual managed object apparatus basis, and configured to store the acquired state information in said memory device; and an information providing part configured to provide to external apparatuses through the communication part the state information of each managed object apparatus stored in said memory device; and wherein the managed object specifying part is arranged to specify information regarding communication conditions corresponding to the managed object apparatuses which includes information regarding a protocol used for acquiring the state information from the managed object apparatuses or information regarding a data format of the state information to be acquired.