Patent ID: 8307100

Claim:
A relay server device which is connected to a LAN and which can communicate via a WAN with a different relay server device connected to a different LAN, the relay server device comprising: a non-transitory memory comprising: an account information registering database arranged to store account information about a client terminal; a relay group information registering database arranged to store relay group information including account information of: the relay server device; the different relay server device; a client terminal connected to the relay server device via the LAN; and a different client terminal connected to the different relay server device via the different LAN; a relay group information sharing code arranged to share the relay group information with the relay server device and the different relay server device; and a shared resource information registering database arranged to store, when a resource is shared between the client terminal and the different client terminal in a relay group, shared resource information including: account information of a client terminal capable of handling the resource; information regarding the name of the resource; account information of a client terminal with access to the resource; and key information including a key that is required to be entered in order to access the resource; wherein the relay server device is configured such that when the relay server device receives an operation instruction regarding the resource, the relay server device: extracts the client terminal capable of handling the resource based on the shared resource information; identifies a relay server device connected to the client terminal capable of handling the resource; and relays the operation instruction regarding the resource via the identified relay server device only if the operation instruction includes the required key.