The invention provides a network device control apparatus which can set an IP address to be inherently set by using a general program while an erroneous setup of the IP address by the general program is avoided. In the network device control apparatus according to the invention, data is received from a network by using a standard protocol, a special attribute value is detected in the standard protocol with respect to the data, and when a destination physical address of the data is the same as its own physical address, various parameters are set in accordance with the attribute value.