Patent ID: 7602511

Claim:
A communication device for communicating with an address management device that edits address data through a local area network (LAN) and communicating with a remote device connected to a communication network, comprising: a memory that stores a plurality of address data relating to the remote device, each of the plurality of the address data being one of a first type of address data and a second type of address data, the first type of address data having a first type of address for identifying the remote device by a first communication method, and first data information indicating the first communication method, and the second type of address data having a second type of address for identifying the remote device by a second communication method, and second data information indicating the second communication method; a retrieving unit that retrieves one of the plurality of address data from the memory based on a remote-device indication information; a determination unit that determines based on the data information of the retrieved address data whether the retrieved address data is the first type or the second type; a first communication unit that communicates with the remote device based on the first type of address by the first communication method if the determination unit determines that the retrieved address data is the first type; a second communication unit that communicates with the remote device based on the second type of address by the second communication method if the determination unit determines that the retrieved address data is the second type; and a data editing unit that communicates with the address management device, based on SNMP-based communication, the data editing unit comprising: a first receiving unit that receives a read command transmitted from the address management device, the read command indicating that the address management device plans to edit at least one of the plurality of the address data; a reading unit that reads corresponding address data from the memory in response to the read command; a transmitting unit that transmits the read address data to the address management device, the read address data including at least one of the first and second types of address and corresponding data information; a second receiving unit that receives the address data edited by the address management device and a register command transmitted from the address management device, the edited address data including the edited at least one of the first and second types of address and the corresponding data information; and a data registration unit that registers the received address data by the second receiving unit into the memory in response to the register command.