To provide a shared equipment control method and a server/client system for preventing any situation that a user can not understand what is happening since an error message is displayed only on the display screen of a server device by a server device side program due to the use of equipment in a non-ready state such as a power off state at the time of accessing a connectable shared equipment on a network.

At the time of controlling a shared equipment shared by plural information processors connected through a network, the shared equipment is locally connected to one of the plural information processors, and the other information processor inquires the ready state of the shared equipment through the network to the information processor with which the shared equipment is locally connected (S5), and uses the shared equipment according to the returned ready state of the shared equipment (S6, S8), and imparts the non-ready state of the shared equipment to a user (S7) prior to the use of the shared equipment.