Patent ID: 7219146

Claim:
A network system for connecting a plurality of terminal devices via an agent module, comprising: one of the terminal devices; and the agent module disposed between a network and the one of the terminal devices, for relaying an access from the one of the terminal devices to the network, wherein the agent module includes a request signal transmission section for transmitting to the one of the terminal devices a request signal requesting to initiate and establish an information transmission enabled state between the one of the terminal devices and the agent module, the request signal including identification information to identify the agent module; and the one of the terminal devices includes: a reception section for receiving the transmitted request signal, a first determination section for determining whether the agent module which has transmitted the request signal is an agent module to which the one of the terminal devices receiving the request signal is to be connected; and an establishment section for establishing the information transmission enabled state between the one of the terminal devices receiving the request signal and the agent module which has transmitted the request signal, when the first determination section ascertains that the agent module which has transmitted the request signal is the agent module to which the one of the terminal devices receiving the request signal is to be connected, wherein the agent module includes: an accumulation section for accumulating distribution information to be distributed to the one of the terminal devices; a second determination section for determining, based on a state signal transmitted from the one of the terminal devices, whether the one of the terminal devices is ready for receiving the distribution information after the information transmission enabled state is established between the one of the terminal devices and the agent module; and a distribution section for distributing the distribution information when it is determined that the one of the terminal devices is ready for receiving the distribution information, and the one of the terminal devices includes: a state signal transmission section for transmitting to the agent module the state signal indicating whether the one of the terminal devices is ready for receiving the distribution information; and an distribution information reception section for receiving the distribution information, which is distributed.