JP2002164911A - Communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication terminal that can confirm whether or not transmitted electronic mail is received without being excessively subjected to charge imposition. SOLUTION: The communication terminal of this invention that is compatible with electronic mail and the MDN(Message Disposition Notifications) is provided with a means that stores maintenance information of information to be transmitted, a function that registers a specific destination address from which the acknowledgement by the MDN can be expected, and a measurement means that measures a time after mail transmission. In the case of transmitting mail to a destination by using the MDN that makes a specific contract with a service station or the like from which acknowledgement by means of the MDN can be expected, the communication terminal transmits the same contents as those of the preceding mail to the destination when the communication terminal receives no acknowledgement after a prescribed time. In the case of sending a message of mail to a specific opposite party that can respond to the mail by means of the MDN, the communication terminal checks the acknowledgement from the opposite party by means of the MDN. Since the communication terminal retransmits the message when receiving no acknowledgement even after a prescribed time, the communication terminal can enhance the surety of message transmission even when using the electronic mail.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a communication terminal,
For example, it relates to a communication terminal configured as a network terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a communication terminal has, for example, a response function. In communication by e-mail, MD
There is a means by which the transmitting side knows the result of communication by the delivery confirmation procedure according to N (RFC2298). However, when there is no response to the MDN, it is not known whether there is no response due to an error on the receiving side or whether the response is intentionally made unresponsive. On the other hand, there is also a conventional method of sending internal information (maintenance information such as various counter information and error history) of an unmanned terminal to a service station that is a maintenance contractor by e-mail.

As an example of a prior application invention similar to the present invention in the technical field, there is a "communication device with a delivery confirmation function" in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-223316. In the present invention, when information is received from the facsimile machine on the delivery side, the reception is confirmed, a delivery confirmation message is generated under the control of the CPU, and is managed by the mail status management unit. When there is an incoming call from the same facsimile machine, the delivery confirmation message managed by the mail status management unit is read and transmitted to the facsimile machine. By doing so, the communication traffic of the receiving device is reduced, and the communication cost is reduced.

[0004]

However, according to the above-mentioned conventional method of sending an e-mail to a service station, it is difficult to know whether the e-mail finally reaches the service station due to the bucket relay method between the mail servers. Did not.

[0005] In another conventional system, there may be a situation where a service station which should originally respond cannot respond. For example, it is possible that a trouble has occurred in the terminal on the service station side or in the entire communication system, and in such a situation, retransmission within a short time from the previous transmission is considered useless. Moreover, it is not possible to determine how long after which transmission should be performed.

[0006] In still another method, a second call is made, so that there is a problem that an extra charge is required.

An object of the present invention is to provide a communication terminal capable of confirming an incoming call without extra charges.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a communication terminal according to the present invention is provided for transmitting electronic mail (POP / SMTP) having an interface connected to a public network and a communication terminal compatible with MDN. A means for holding maintenance information of information to be provided, a function for registering a specific destination address that can expect a response (delivery acknowledgment) to the MDN when the maintenance information is sent, and a time measurement after mail transmission. When sending an e-mail using the above-mentioned MDN to a party that has a specific contract such as a service station and can expect to respond to the MDN, a delivery confirmation response must be received after a certain period of time. If
It is characterized in that the same contents are transmitted again last time.

[0009] Furthermore, a function for registering an appropriate spare mail address in advance is provided. In this registration function, a mail such as a mail address of a service station in an adjacent district or a manager on the user side, for which appropriate processing can be expected, is provided. If the address is registered, and if the delivery confirmation response cannot be received for a certain period of time, it is included in the destination (To: address generally referred to by e-mail) in addition to the address sent earlier (address of the service station). It is desirable to enable highly effective retransmission.

[0010] In the case where the contents of the maintenance information to be added to the retransmission are not included in any urgent matters, the maintenance information may be further retained and transmitted collectively at the next transmission of the maintenance information.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of a communication terminal according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4, one embodiment of the communication terminal of the present invention is shown.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a communication terminal for realizing the present invention as a network compatible facsimile. In FIG. 1, a CPU 1001 executes control processing of the entire communication terminal, and a ROM 1002 stores a control processing program executed by the CPU and various data necessary for control processing.

The RAM 1003 stores document data such as image data and text data, mail server addresses, maintenance information including counter information, toner remaining amount, jam history, and the like, and transmission history of maintenance information. The operation port 1004 includes a key input unit for the user to operate the communication terminal, and a liquid crystal display unit for displaying a message or the like from the communication terminal to the user.

A modem 1005 modulates / demodulates a signal at the time of G3 transmission / reception and mail transmission / reception via a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). The NCU 1006 connects to a PSTN line. Things.

A scanner 1007 reads a manuscript sent by facsimile or mail.
08 is for printing and outputting image data and the like. The external memory 1009 is for storing a large amount of data.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an environment using the present invention. In FIG. 2, the present invention is applied as FAX5,
In addition to G3 transmission / reception through 1, PS for mail transmission / reception
Internet service provider (S
A dial-up connection is made to the access point P), and communication with the mail server 4 on the Internet 3 is performed. FAX
5 also has a PSTN1 service station.
G3 transmission and reception and mail transmission and reception are performed through

Various types of maintenance contracts are conceivable. For example, here, a case is considered in which maintenance information is transmitted periodically once a month. The urgent items (or the reason for early transmission) in claim 3 also depend on the maintenance contract type. For example, the number of jams (inspection must be repeated more than once), or the supply of toner (such as Is automatically delivered when viewed from the user side).

FIG. 3 shows a flow when the processing of claims 1 to 3 is performed. For example, the maintenance information transmission is set at the beginning of the month (on the first day of the month), and the processing of the present invention is started periodically. First, it is checked whether the maintenance information up to the previous month remains untransmitted (step S301), and the maintenance information that has not been transmitted and the maintenance information to be newly transmitted (counter information such as the communication amount, the number of scans and the number of prints, The information to be transmitted this time is created together with supply information of toner and the like, jam information and other error information (step S30).
2) and store it (step S303).

FIG. 4 is a diagram when an example of the maintenance information is read by a mailer of an ordinary personal computer. Step S3
02 and the information processed in step S303 are transmitted by e-mail, and time counting is started from this time (step S304).
The mail transmission at this time complies with the MDN. Thereafter, the present invention waits for a delivery confirmation response by the MDN (step S305).

The delivery acknowledgment is received as a mail from the mail server via the Internet by accessing the service provider. The trigger for receiving the mail depends on the operation of the present invention. Every day, once a day, etc.)
It may be done only by manual reception of the user.

When the mail receiving operation is performed, it is checked whether the delivery confirmation response is included in the mail (step S3).
06), if it is included, the history is updated and the transmitted maintenance information is deleted (step S312). If it is not included, the time set in advance from the maintenance information transmission (24 in the flow)
h) (step S3).
07), if it has not yet passed, it again waits for a delivery confirmation response (step S305), and if it has already passed, it checks the maintenance information to be transmitted this time (step S30).
8) If there is no reason to send the information early, it is to be sent together with the maintenance information after the next month (step S31).
In 2), if there is a reason to be transmitted earlier, the address that has been pre-registered other than the service station to which the data is normally transmitted is also included in the destination (step S310), and the maintenance information is retransmitted (step S311). The maintenance information that is no longer needed, leaving a history of whether it has been transmitted or not, is deleted (step S312), and the process is terminated.

[0022]

As is clear from the above description, the communication terminal of the present invention firstly, when sending a message to a specific party who can respond to the MDN by mail, confirms the delivery by the MDN. Since a response is made and the delivery confirmation response is checked, and the message is resent because there is no delivery confirmation response even after a certain period of time, the reliability of delivery of the message can be improved even by using an e-mail.

Second, by increasing the number of mail transmission destinations, it is possible to increase the reliability of message delivery at the time of retransmission.

Third, the communication cost required for transmitting the maintenance information can be kept constant.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention as a network-compatible facsimile.

FIG. 2 is a system diagram showing an application example of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram when an example of maintenance information is read by a mailer of a normal personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 PSTN 3 Internet 5 FAX 1001 CPU 1002 ROM 1003 RAM 1004 Operation port 1005 Modem 1006 NCU 1007 Scanner 1008 Plotter 1009 External memory

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 1/00 107 H04L 11/20 101B 1/32

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal supporting an electronic mail (POP / SMTP) and an MDN having an interface connected to a public network, means for holding maintenance information of information to be transmitted, and transmitting the maintenance information. It has a function to register a specific destination address that can expect a response (delivery acknowledgment) to the MDN, and a measuring means to measure the time after sending an e-mail. And M
A communication terminal for transmitting an e-mail using the MDN to a party who can expect to respond to a DN, if a delivery confirmation response is not received after a certain period of time, the same content as the previous time is transmitted again. 2. A function for registering an appropriate spare e-mail address in advance is provided. In the registration function, for example, an e-mail address of a service station in an adjacent district or an e-mail address of an administrator on the user side can be expected. Register your e-mail address, and if you cannot receive a delivery confirmation response for a certain period of time, include it in the destination (To: address generally used in e-mail) in addition to the address sent earlier (address of the service station) 2. The communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein highly effective retransmission is made possible by the following. 3. When the urgent items are not included in the check of the contents of the maintenance information to be attached to the retransmission,
3. The communication terminal according to claim 2, further comprising holding the maintenance information and transmitting the maintenance information at the same time when the next maintenance information is sent.