An Internet facsimile apparatus as a sender makes inquiry about capability, which a destination Internet facsimile apparatus possesses, to a local server in a local network. When the local server has no capability information of the destination stored, the sender makes inquiry to a DNS server higher than the local server and obtains capability information of the destination from the DNS server. Then, the sender registers the obtained capability information of the destination to a memory, which the local server or the sender has. This realizes that the sender can surely obtain capability information of the destination. Also, this makes it possible to automatically register capability information of the destination to the memory of the local server or the sender.