Patent ID: 8422042

Claim:
A communication device, comprising: a processing unit; a network interface that communicates with a terminal device connected to a network; a communication interface that communicates with a locally connected peripheral device; an interface control unit that controls the communication interface and transmits control data to the peripheral device, the control data being for controlling the peripheral device; a device control unit that generates the control data for the peripheral device in accordance with an instruction entered from the processing unit, and transmits the control data to the interface control unit; and a relay unit that extracts the control data for the peripheral device from a packet received by the network interface, and transmits the control data to the interface control unit, and a mode switching unit that switches the device control unit and the relay unit to selectively activate an internal control mode and a network control mode, the internal control mode controlling the peripheral device by means of the device control unit, and the network control mode controlling the peripheral device by means of the relay unit.