Patent ID: 7199892

Claim:
A facsimile apparatus transmitting image data to a relay Internet facsimile apparatus via PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Networks), the relay Internet facsimile apparatus transmitting the image data to a plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses via the Internet, each of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses having a sub-address and an IP address, the facsimile apparatus comprising: an input configured to input the image data; a panel configured to input predetermined information identifying the relay Internet facsimile apparatus and sub-addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses, the relay Internet facsimile apparatus having a memory that stores IP addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses corresponding to the sub-addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses; and a controller that, when the predetermined information and the sub-addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses are input by the panel, transmits, to the relay Internet facsimile apparatus via the PSTN, the input image data and the input sub-addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses, based on the input predetermined information identifying the relay Internet facsimile apparatus, the relay Internet facsimile apparatus determining whether the sub-addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses are received from the facsimile apparatus, the relay Internet facsimile apparatus converting the transmitted image data into data for Internet transmission and relaying the converted data to the plurality of the receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses via the Internet, based on the IP addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses corresponding to the sub-addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses stored in the memory of the relay Internet facsimile apparatus, when it is determined that the sub-addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses are received from the facsimile apparatus, the relay Internet facsimile apparatus printing out the transmitted image data when it is determined that the sub-addresses of the plurality of receiving Internet facsimile apparatuses are not received from the facsimile apparatus.