JP2016158116A - Lan access method and address registration server - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a LAN access method capable of easily accessing the network equipment connected to a LAN and performing various processing for the network equipment even when the address of the network equipment is unknown.SOLUTION: When network equipment 40 is connected to a LAN 10, a local IP address is automatically assigned by a DHCP function 22 of a router 20. The network equipment 40 uses an address registration program 42 to register an own serial number, the local IP address, and a MAC address in a database 210 of an address registration server 200 via an Internet 100. When the network equipment 40 is set using a computer 30 for setting, a LAN access method executes a program 32 for setting to transmit a serial number of the network equipment 40 to the address registration server 200 and acquire the local IP address and the MAC address of the network equipment 40. The LAN access method then accesses the network equipment 40 according to the acquired MAC address and local IP address.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an improvement in an access method for a network device connected to a LAN (Local Area Network), and more particularly to a LAN access method and an address registration server suitable for accessing a network device whose local IP (Internet Protocol) address is unknown. .

  Wireless LANs and wired LANs have been laid at home as well as in companies, and various network devices are now connected, not just PCs and servers. Many of these network devices do not have a screen or an operation panel, and perform operations such as initial setting using a HTTP, WWW browser, from a personal computer, a smart phone, a tablet, or the like connected to the network. Network devices identify and communicate with each other by IP address, but in order to perform simple settings, operations that automatically set local IP addresses from the server (router) side using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) are widely used. Yes.

  The local IP address specified by DHCP can be used to investigate and display the setting screen etc. with commands for network devices with a display screen such as a personal computer. The screen cannot be displayed. Once you know the local IP address, you can connect to the network device with a personal computer connected via LAN, etc., and you can easily display the setting screen by HTTP, but if you do not know the local IP address to connect to, connect to the network device I can't connect.

  For this reason, disconnect the PC and the network device from the regular LAN for initial connection only, access the factory-set IP address without using DHCP, scan the classC network with ping, etc. Currently, a lot of useless efforts are being made, such as setting a DHCP server so that the MAC address of the device becomes a fixed IP address. In addition, Patent Document 1 below discloses a system and method for registering an IP address of a wireless communication device, which is a technology specialized for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

JP 2010-81600

  It would be advantageous if various network devices could be connected to a LAN without any initial settings and accessed immediately from a personal computer or the like to perform initial settings for the network devices.

  The present invention focuses on the above points, and its purpose is to allow easy access even when the address of a network device connected to the LAN is unknown. Another object is to satisfactorily perform various processes on the network device by the access.

  The LAN access method of the present invention includes a step of dynamically assigning a local IP address by DHCP to a network device installed in the LAN, and the assigned local IP address, together with an identification code of the network device, an address registration server And storing in a searchable manner, accessing the address registration server using an identification code of a network device, reading a local IP address corresponding to the identification code, and using the read local IP address And a step of accessing the network device.

  According to one of the main forms, when accessing the address registration server by using the identification code of the network device, the barcode is attached to the network device, thereby accessing the address registration server. The URL is generated. One of the other forms is characterized in that a preset screen is automatically displayed when the network device is accessed using the read local IP address.

  The address registration server of the present invention is characterized in that, in any one of the LAN access methods, the local IP address assigned to the network device is stored so as to be searchable together with the identification code of the network device. The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

  According to the present invention, the local IP address of the network device is registered in the address registration server so as to be searchable from the identification code of the network device, and the local IP address can be acquired from the identification code. Even when the local IP address of the network device is unknown, the network device can be easily accessed, and various processes such as initial setting and resetting of the network device can be performed.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of one Example of this invention.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail based on examples.

  FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a wired or wireless LAN (intranet) 10 is connected to the Internet 100 that is a WAN via an appropriate provider (not shown). In the example shown in the figure, one LAN 10 is shown, but many are usually connected to the Internet 100.

  The LAN 10 includes a router 20, a setting computer 30, and a network device 40 to be set. Among these, the router 20 has a DHCP function 22 and a NAT (Network Address Translation) function 24. The setting computer 30 is a computer device having a display such as a personal computer, a smart phone, a tablet, etc., which can operate a web browser, and has functions and settings that allow various inputs while referring to a display screen. Program 32 is provided. The setting computer 30 is also one of the network devices, but in this embodiment, it is separated from other network devices for convenience of explanation.

  The network device 40 corresponds to the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), does not have a display screen, and requires various settings by the setting computer 30. For general households, air conditioners, lighting equipment, temperature sensors, human sensors, and the like are applicable. A plurality of network devices 40 are connected to the router 20 as necessary. The network device 40 includes an address registration program 42 for registering an address with an address registration server 200 to be described later, and a setting program 44 for the setting computer 30 to set. These programs 42 and 44 can be activated by, for example, CGI (Common Gateway Interface).

  On the other hand, an address registration server 200 is connected to the Internet 100. The address registration server 200 includes a database 210 of local IP addresses of the network device 40 described above. In the database 210, serial numbers, local IP addresses, and MAC addresses assigned to the network device 40 are registered in association with each other.

  Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described. When the network device 40 is connected to the router 20 of the LAN 10, a local IP address is requested from the router 20 (S1). The router 20 responds with the DHCP function 22 and automatically assigns a local IP address (S2). Then, the network device 40 transmits the serial number assigned to itself and the local IP address or MAC address by the address registration program 42 to the address registration server 200 after address conversion by the NAT function 24 of the router 20. (S3). Specifically, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the address registration server 200 is transmitted including information on the serial number, local IP address, and MAC address. The address registration server 200 registers and stores the transmitted serial number, local IP address, and MAC address information in the database 210. The NAT function 24 of the router 20 converts a private local IP address into a global local IP address. In the following description, the local IP address is referred to without distinction between the two. The same applies when converting from a global IP address to a private IP address.

  Next, when setting the network device 40 with the setting computer 30, the setting program 32 is executed, the address registration server 200 is accessed via the Internet 100, and the serial number of the corresponding network device 40 is transmitted. (S4). Specifically, the URL of the address registration server 200 is transmitted including the serial number information. Then, the address registration server 200 reads the local IP address and MAC address of the corresponding serial number from the database 210, and responds to send to the setting computer 30 (S5). The setting computer 30 that has received the address information accesses the corresponding network device 40 based on the MAC address and the local IP address (S6). Then, the network device 40 executes the setting program 44 and transmits a setting screen to the setting computer 30. Since the setting screen is displayed on the display of the setting computer 30, desired setting processing can be performed while referring to the setting screen.

  Next, a specific example is shown. It is assumed that the LAN 10 has an address “192.168.1.0/24”, for example. When a new network device 40 having the serial number “54321” and the MAC address “b0: c7: 45: a9: c4: 12” is connected thereto, the router 20 sets “192.168.1.100/32” as the local IP address. "Is assigned.

The network device 40 accesses the address registration server 200 by the address registration program 42. For example, with CGI GET action, access with the following URL.
http://conf.example.com/reg?sn=54321?MAC= b0c745a9c412? IP = 192_168_1_100

  The address registration server 200 corresponding to the URL “conf.example.com” reads the serial number, MAC address, and IP address from the URL and stores them in the database 210. Such address registration processing is sequentially performed on a large number of network devices 40.

On the other hand, a user who wants to access the network device 40 accesses the address registration server 200 using the setting computer 30. For example, if the serial number is “54321”, specify the URL in the Web browser as follows.
http://conf.example.com/search?sn=54321

  Then, the address registration server 200 transmits the local IP address “192.168.1.100” of the serial number “54321” and the MAC address “b0: c7: 45: a9: c4: 12” to the setting computer 30. Thereby, the user can access the network device 40.

The setting computer 30 may automatically generate the inquiry URL described above by displaying a serial number input form and inputting the serial number. Further, if a barcode describing the inquiry URL is pasted on the network device 40, it can be easily accessed by reading it with a smart phone or the like. Or you may make it show the link to the said address on the screen of the computer 30 for a setting. In the above example, the link destination is as follows.
http://192.168.1.100/

  Further, by using a refresh tag, it is possible to automatically jump to the setting screen after a specified number of seconds (or 0 seconds) without clicking a link on the screen.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the local IP address of the network device 40 is registered in the address registration server 200, and the setting computer 30 can acquire the local IP address from the serial number. Even when the address of the network device 40 connected to the LAN 10 is unknown, it can be easily accessed. Further, various settings such as initial setting and re-setting for the network device 40 are favorably performed by the access.

In addition, this invention is not limited to the Example mentioned above, A various change can be added in the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention. For example, the following are also included.
(1) In the above-described embodiment, the setting computer 30 is connected to the LAN 10. However, the setting computer 30 may be connected to the outside of the LAN 10 so that the inside of the LAN can be accessed by a VPN (Virtual Private Network). .
(2) In the above-described embodiment, the identification code for identifying the network device is a serial number that is a list of simple numerical values. However, for security and prevention of mischief, the device representing the device assigned to the network device 40 The code and a security check code may be concatenated. In this case, the unauthorized serial number may not be registered in the database 210, and the data may be discarded.
(3) In the above embodiment, the initial setting or the like is performed on the network device 40, but various processes such as remote control may be performed.

  According to the present invention, even when the address of a network device connected to a LAN is unknown, it can be easily accessed and various processes can be performed, which is suitable for IoT.

10: LAN
20: Router 22: DHCP function 24: NAT function 30: Setting computer 32: Setting program 40: Network device 42: Address registration program 44: Setting program 100: Internet 200: Address registration server 210: Database

Claims (4)

Steps for dynamically assigning local IP addresses by DHCP to network devices installed in the LAN,
Sending the assigned local IP address to the address registration server together with the identification code of the network device, and storing it in a searchable manner;
Accessing the address registration server using an identification code of a network device and reading a local IP address corresponding to the identification code;
Accessing the network device using the read local IP address;
LAN access method characterized by including.   When accessing the address registration server using an identification code of a network device, a URL for accessing the address registration server is generated by reading a barcode attached to the network device. The LAN access method according to claim 1.   The LAN access method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a preset screen is automatically displayed when the network device is accessed using the read local IP address.   4. The LAN access method according to claim 1, wherein a local IP address assigned to a network device is stored so as to be searchable together with an identification code of the network device.

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