JP2000330885A - Information transmitting/receiving system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To receive the information on a www server in a system provided with a firewall from the outside of the system. SOLUTION: A mail receiving part 31 receives an electronic(E) mail from a mail client 10 through a mail server 20 and a mail analysis part 32 decomposes the contents of the received mail into information indicating the transmitter of the E mail and access contents. A security management part 33 checks whether an access to a URL specified by the transmitter is permitted or not, and when the access is permitted, a HTTP server access part 34 accesses a www server 40 indicated by the access contents and receives information from a document position indicated by the URL. A mail preparation part 35 prepares an E mail for replay including the information and a mail transmission part 36 transmits the E mail to the mail client 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an information transmitting / receiving system in which a terminal device accesses a WWW server via the Internet or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A terminal device is connected to a WW via the Internet.
When receiving information from a W server, the terminal device generally accesses the WWW server using the HTTP protocol. Then, the terminal device retrieves information from the WWW server via a browser or the like.

[0003]

However, when a WWW server is provided with a firewall, the WWW
Sometimes information cannot be retrieved from the server.
Generally, the firewall is installed from outside the system using HTT.
This is because, when accessed by the P protocol, access is often denied.

[0004] Accordingly, the present invention provides a system in which a firewall is provided from outside a system provided with the firewall.
An object of the present invention is to provide an information transmitting / receiving system that can receive information of a WW server.

[0005] Various configurations for transmitting information from a WWW server have been proposed. For example, JP-A-10-326
Japanese Patent Publication No. 236 proposes a system for transmitting multimedia information of a WWW server by e-mail. However, the system does not include a configuration for performing a request process from the terminal device side.

As a system for extracting information from a WWW server having desired information, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-393
There is a system described in JP-A-28. In the system, an agent server 70 is installed as shown in FIG. The agent client (terminal device) 50 who wants information requests the agent server 70 to search for information via the mail server 60. The agent server 70 searches for a server having information according to the request from a number of WWW servers 801 to 803,
The URL indicating the document position on the WWW server found as a result of the search is returned to the agent client 50. The agent client 50 receives the received U
Access the WWW server using RL. Such a system can perform efficient information retrieval for the terminal device, but has a problem that if the WWW server is provided with a firewall, it may not be possible to retrieve information from the WWW server. ing.

[0007]

An information transmission / reception system according to the present invention is an information transmission / reception system in which a terminal device retrieves information from a WWW server, and receives an e-mail in which access contents to the WWW server are set from the terminal device. And an information transmission system for extracting information corresponding to the access content from the WWW server and returning an electronic mail including the extracted information to the terminal device.

[0008] The information transmission system may be configured such that when the information retrieved from the WWW server is information that cannot be displayed in-line on the terminal device, the retrieved information is set in an attached file of the e-mail.
In such a configuration, information that cannot be displayed inline in the terminal device if it is set in the mail text can be returned to the terminal device.

The information transmission system includes a mail analysis unit for confirming a source and an access content from an electronic mail from a terminal device, and whether or not the source analyzed by the mail analysis unit is permitted to access indicated by the access content. It may be configured to include a security management unit that determines whether or not the security management unit determines whether or not the security management unit determines whether or not the security management unit determines whether or not the security management unit determines whether or not the security management unit is operating. In such a configuration, when a firewall is provided, security can be ensured with respect to access by an external electronic mail.

When a firewall is provided, the information transmission system is installed inside a firewall provided in a system including a WWW server.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of an information transmission / reception system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, a mail client (terminal device) 1
0 is the information transmission system 30 via the mail server 20
Connected to. The information transmission system 30 transmits a request to the WWW server 40, receives information from the WWW server 40, and returns the information to the mail client 10.

The information transmission system 30 includes the mail server 2
E-mail receiving unit 3 that reads the e-mail stored in 0
1. a mail analysis unit 32 that analyzes the contents of an electronic mail; and a WW based on information in a security information storage unit 331.
Security management unit 33 that determines whether access to W server 40 is permitted, HTTP server access unit 34 that accesses WWW server 40, and mail creation unit 3 that creates an e-mail to be returned to mail client 10
5, and a mail transmitting unit 36 for transmitting an electronic mail to the mail client 10 side. When a firewall is provided, the information transmission system 30 is a component in the system protected by the firewall.

Next, the flowchart of FIG. 2 and FIGS.
The operation will be described with reference to the explanatory diagram of FIG. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the mail address [name1 @
nec. co. jp] without specifying a parameter from the mail client 10 [http: // //
www. nec. co. jp / patent /], it is assumed that an electronic mail having the access content of the URL indicated by the URL is transmitted. The destination of the e-mail is the information transmission system 30. Also, [http: // www. nec. co.
jp / patent /] is WWW4
0 indicates the document position on the server. As shown in FIG. 4, a parameter can be added to the access content in the e-mail.

The mail server 20 receives an electronic mail from the mail client 10. Information transmission system 3
The mail receiving unit 31 of 0 receives an electronic mail from the mail server 20 (step S11). In the information transmission system 30, the mail analysis unit 32 converts the contents of the mail into [name1 @ nec. co. j
p] and the access content [http: // www.
nec. co. jp / patent /] (step S12).

[0015] The security management unit 33, based on the information in the security information storage unit 331, the sender [na
me1 @ nec. co. jp] is [http: // www
w. nec. co. jp / patent /] is confirmed (step S13).

In the security information storage unit 331, for example, as shown in FIG.
And the permitted access rights are stored.
In the example shown in FIG. 5, the sender [name1 @ nec. c
o. jp] is [http: // www. nec. c
o. jp / patent /], only reference to the URL indicated is permitted. If no parameter is added to the access content in the e-mail, it indicates that the access is a reference.

Since the reference is permitted, the mail analysis unit 32 sends the sender [name1 @ nec. co. jp]. The HTTP server access unit 34 obtains the access content [http: // www. nec. co. jp
[/ Patent /] to access the WWW server 40 and receive information (HTML text) from the document position indicated by the URL (step S1).
4).

In this embodiment, the access content to which a parameter is added as shown in FIG. 4 means a write access. Therefore, the e-mail including the access content to which the parameter is added is sent by the sender [name1
＠Nec. co. jp], the mail analysis unit 32 knows from the information stored in the security information storage unit 331 that write access is not permitted, and sends the HTTP server access unit 34 Do not perform the process of handing over. Therefore, W
No access to the WW server 40 is made.

In step S14, when the HTTP server access unit 34 receives the HTML text from the WWW server 40, the mail creation unit 35 expands the HTML text into the mail body. Then, [name
1 @ nec. co. jp] to create an e-mail for return (step S15). Then, the mail transmitting unit 36 transmits the electronic mail to the mail client 10 via the mail server 20 (Step S16).

As described above, in this embodiment, when accessing the WWW server 40, the user sends an e-mail in which access contents are set. Therefore, WW
Strictly speaking, the information transmission system 30 and the mail client 1 are located between the W server 40 and the mail client 10.
The mail client 10 can access the WWW server 40 even if a firewall is installed between the mail client 10 and the mail server 10. Generally, the firewall rejects access from the outside via the HTTP protocol,
This is because the SMTP protocol used in electronic mail is not rejected.

FIG. 7 is a system configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the information transmitting / receiving system according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the information transmission system 30 is provided with an access information analysis unit 37 that analyzes whether information returned from the WWW server 40 to the mail client 10 can be set in the mail text.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As in the case of the first embodiment, it is assumed that the user has transmitted an e-mail having the URL of the WWW server 40 as an access content from the mail client 10.

The mail server 20 receives an electronic mail from the mail client 10. Information transmission system 3
The e-mail receiving unit 31 receives the e-mail from the mail server 20 (step S11), and the e-mail analyzing unit 32
Decomposes the mail contents into information indicating the sender of the e-mail and access contents (step S12).

The security management unit 33 checks whether or not access to the URL specified by the caller is permitted (step S13). If the access is permitted, the HTTP server access unit 34 checks the access content. Accesses the WWW server 40 indicated by the URL and receives information from the document position indicated by the URL (step S14).

The above processing is the same as that of the first embodiment, but in this embodiment, the access information analysis unit 37 uses the mail client 10 to send the information returned from the WWW server 40 in the mail text. It is analyzed whether the information can be displayed, that is, whether the information can be expanded inline or not (step S17). Generally, the format that can be displayed in the mail body in the mail client 10 is a normal text format document or HTML text. The access information analysis unit 37 stores the extension of the file specified in the access content to the WWW server 40 and the WW
The format is analyzed from the contents of communication between the W server 40 and the HTTP server access unit 34 and the like.

If the format is such that it can be displayed in the body of the mail, the mail creating unit 35 expands the information returned from the WWW server 40 into an electronic mail inline (step S1).
5). If it is not a format that can be displayed in the mail body, WWW
The information returned from the server 40 is set in the attached file (step S15). Then, the mail transmitting unit 36
The e-mail is transmitted to the mail client 10 via the mail server 20 (step S16).

As shown in FIG. 9, the access content includes [ht
tp: // www. nec. co. jp / patent
/ Sample. When [bin] is specified, the WWW server 40 sets the [http: // www. nec. co.
jp / patent /] at the URL [samp
le. bin]. Step S
In the process at 17, the access information analysis unit 37 determines that the returned information is a binary file and cannot be expanded inline in an e-mail. Therefore, in the process of step S15, the mail creation unit 35
As shown in (2), the information returned from the WWW server 40 is set in the attached file.

As described above, in this embodiment, WW
If the result of accessing the W server 40 is returned in a format that cannot be expanded inline into an electronic mail such as a binary file, the electronic mail including the attached file is returned to the mail client 10. Therefore, for example, even if the returned information is in a file format by a word processor or spreadsheet software, the access result can be received by e-mail.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, when an information transmission / reception system receives an e-mail in which access contents to a WWW server are set from a terminal device, information corresponding to the access contents is transmitted from the WWW server. Since the information transmission system for taking out and returning the e-mail including the taken out information to the terminal device is provided,
Even if a firewall is provided in the system including the server, there is an effect that information on the WWW server in the system can be received from outside the system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of an information transmission / reception system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an electronic mail transmitted from a mail client.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of an electronic mail transmitted from a mail client.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of contents stored in a security information storage unit.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an electronic mail returned to a mail client.

FIG. 7 is a system configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the information transmitting / receiving system according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an electronic mail transmitted from a mail client.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an electronic mail returned to a mail client.

FIG. 11 is a system configuration diagram showing a configuration of a conventional information transmission / reception system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 mail client 20 mail server 30 information transmission system 40 WWW server 31 mail reception unit 32 mail analysis unit 33 security management unit 331 security information storage unit 34 HTTP server access unit 35 mail creation unit 36 mail transmission unit 37 access information analysis unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] In an information transmitting / receiving system in which a terminal device retrieves information from a WWW server, when an electronic mail in which access content to the WWW server is set is received from the terminal device, information corresponding to the access content is retrieved from the WWW server. An information transmission / reception system, comprising: an information transmission system for returning an electronic mail including extracted information to a terminal device. 2. The information transmission / reception system according to claim 1, wherein the information transmission system sets the retrieved information in an attached file of an e-mail when the information retrieved from the WWW server is information that cannot be displayed inline on the terminal device. . 3. An information transmission system, comprising: a mail analyzing unit for confirming a sender and access contents from an electronic mail from a terminal device; and an access permitted to indicate the sender analyzed by the mail analyzing unit by the access contents. The information transmitting / receiving system according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a security management unit that determines whether the information is transmitted or not. 4. The information transmitting / receiving system according to claim 1, wherein the information transmitting system is installed inside a firewall provided in a system including a WWW server.