Printer, host computer, printing system, and printing system control method

摘要

A printing system includes a printer (240) and a host computer (220) that are located remote from each other and connected to each other via a communications network. The printer can immediately recognize when there is a problem with the host computer (220). When a command interpreting unit (303) determines that a command sent from the host computer (220) is an error detection configuration command or a reset/start command, and the error detection configuration command or reset/start command is read from a control command buffer (304) through a main control unit (308), an error detection unit (306) starts counting how much time has passed using a timer (309). If the reset/start command or data is not received within a predetermined time, the error detection unit (306) causes the printing control unit (245) to print an error message to inform the user that there is a problem with the host computer (220).