To properly notify a user of the connected status to a communication network.

A profile server judges whether or not any status notification request is received from a client. Then, when the status notification request is received, a handle name included in the request is obtained, and a status flag corresponding to the handle name is extracted from a hard disk 207 (S502). Then, the contents of the status flag are checked, and when the on-line flag is set to 'ON', the contents of a user status are confirmed, and when the on-line flag is set to 'ON', whether or not the user status is 'in hiding' is confirmed (S505). When the user status is not 'in hiding', the user status is notified (S506). On the other hand, when the user status is 'in hiding', it is notified that it is offline.