Patent ID: 8619810

Claim:
A management device for managing a communication device connected to a network including a first device executing communication using a first communication protocol and a second device executing communication using a second communication protocol, the communication device having a first communication function for communicating with the first device using the first communication protocol and a second communication function for communicating with the second device using the second communication protocol, the management device comprising: an input device; and a processor configured to perform the following: change operation of the communication device in regard to at least one of the first and second communication functions to ON or OFF, in accordance with a command inputted through the input device; wherein when changing one of the first and second communication functions from ON to OFF, the processor judges whether a trouble would arise in communication involving the communication device due to the change; and obtain a judgment result, before changing of the operation of the communication device by judging whether the trouble would arise in communication involving the communication device if the operation of the communication device is changed, wherein the communication device is configured to store, as setting information, one of information for communicating with a certain device in the network using the first communication protocol and information for communicating with a certain device in the network using the second communication protocol; the communication device is configured to communicate with a certain device in the network in accordance with the setting information; the processor is further configured to judge that the trouble would arise in communication involving the communication device in a case where the communication device stores, as the setting information, the information for communicating with a certain device in the network using the first communication protocol when the processor changes the first communication function from ON to OFF; and the processor is further configured to judge that the trouble would arise in communication involving the communication device in a case where the communication device stores, as the setting information, the information for communicating with a certain device in the network using the second communication protocol when the processor changes the second communication function from ON to OFF, and wherein the processor is further configured to change the operation of the communication device if it is judged that the trouble would not arise in communication involving the communication device, and to not change the operation of the communication device if it is judged that the trouble would arise in communication involving the communication device.