An image forming apparatus which can avert wasteful processing of disconnection from and reconnection to the same host when a currently-connected host and a host that should be connected next are the same. When a print request is received from one of a plurality of hosts, host information indicative of the host is registered so that an order of print requests can be identified. Connection and disconnection to and from the hosts are carried out according to the host information. Printing is carried out based on print data received from the hosts. When a host as a source of a print request received next after a print request from a currently-connected host is the same as the currently-connected host, print data is received from the currently-connected host, and then print data corresponding to the next print request is received from the currently-connected host without disconnecting from the currently-connected host.