A network device control unit and method are provided in which, not all
MIB objects under the control of the network management software are
simultaneously acquired during startup of the network management software
so the almost simultaneous flow of a large volume of SNMP packets in the
LAN will not occur and along with a simultaneous reduction in the load on
communications lines, the load on devices such as the printer and network
board processing their SNMP packets will also become small. To accomplish
this, windows allocated to individual network peripheral devices on a one
to one basis and controlling the network device are utilized as device
windows, and information to be displayed on the initial screen of the
device window is acquired as the initial sheet and displayed. Device
windows also acquire and display different sheet information on the
device window when determined an entry has been made by the user
requesting display of a different type of sheet information.