Patent attributes
A relay server is connected to a LAN and communicable with a relay server of another LAN. The relay server includes an account information registering unit arranged to store account information including information of a client terminal connected to the same LAN; a relay group information registering unit arranged to store relay group information including information of a group of relay servers permitting connection with one another; a shared resource information registering unit arranged to store shared resource information including information of a resource and information of the client terminals sharing the resource; a relay processing unit arranged to, when accepting from the client terminal stored in the account information registering unit operation instruction on a resource operable by a client terminal connected to another LAN based on the shared resource information, relay the operation of the resource based on the relay group information; and a resource information providing unit arranged to, when accepting an access based on a predetermined protocol from an external client terminal, convert the shared resource information to a format of the predetermined protocol and providing the information to the external client terminal, the external client terminal other than the client terminal stored in the account information registering unit being registerable in the shared resource information registering unit.
