Patent ID: 7636773

Claim:
An information transmission apparatus comprising: request analyzing means for receiving an instruction including both a request for transmission of specific information and an identifier from one of a plurality of information processing apparatus connected with said information transmission apparatus by way of a common connection line, said identifier identifying said information processing apparatus that has made the transmission request and said plurality of information processing apparatus having their respective identifiers, and for analyzing the specific information to be transmitted and the identifier associated with said instruction; storage means for storing array data about arrays each indicating a correspondence between one of a plurality of different pieces of information to be transmitted and at least an identifier identifying one of said plurality of information processing apparatus; information addition means for adding the identifier associated with said instruction to the specific information associated with said instruction by referring to said storage means based on analysis results from said request analyzing means; and information transmission means for transmitting the specific information to which the identifier is added to the information processing device which has provided said instruction to said information transmission apparatus; and when receiving an instruction indicating a request for transmission of specific information, said request analyzing means adds only an identifier associated with said instruction to said array data if a correspondence between the specific information associated with said instruction and at least one identifier is included in the array data stored in said storage means, and adds both identification information identifying the specific information and the identifier, which are associated with said instruction, to said array data if no correspondence between the specific information associated with said instruction and at least one identifier is included in the array data.