Patent ID: 8127031

Claim:
An information processing apparatus that communicates with an image forming apparatus, the information processing apparatus comprising: a first request unit configured to request an operation state information about the image forming apparatus to the image forming apparatus; a receiving unit configured to receive the information from the image forming apparatus, the information including the operation state information about the image forming apparatus and a proxy response device identification information which identifies a proxy response device remote from the image forming apparatus; an extracting unit configured to extract and store the proxy response device identification information included in a response of the image forming apparatus corresponding to the request from the first request unit, in a case where the image forming apparatus normally responds to the request from the first request unit; and a second request unit configured to request the information about the image forming apparatus to the proxy response device identified by the proxy response device identification information stored by the extracting unit, in a case where the image forming apparatus does not respond to the request from the first request unit, wherein the proxy device receives the information about the image forming apparatus from the image forming apparatus when the image forming apparatus can respond to the request, and the proxy device responds to the request from the image processing apparatus when the image forming apparatus cannot respond to the request.