JP2003125002A - Method for delivering electronic mail at designated time - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mail transmission system where any mail can be transmitted at a designated time, and pranks can be prevented. SOLUTION: A client desiring transmission registers a message, transmission designated time, and a transmission destination mail address to a server. The current time and the transmission designated time are compared routinely, by making use of a clocking function. When the present time exceeds the transmission designated time, a message is transmitted as a mail from the server to the transmission destination mail address, whereby mail transmission at the designated time is ensured. Further, mail transmission is allowed only to a client, to whom transmission of the present system has been previously allowed, for limiting transmission destination clients so as to prevent pranks.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail delivery system including a plurality of receiving devices connected by a network, and more particularly to a mail delivery system for transmitting information at a designated time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a means for transmitting a message from a sender to a receiver, there is a mail delivery system using a computer connected to a network. This mail delivery system has a computer and a mobile phone on the sending side and the receiving side, is connected via a communication line such as a public telephone network or a local area network, and sends and receives messages as electronic mail. As such a mail delivery system, there is a storage exchange type mail delivery system consisting of a client / server type system.

In the above mail delivery system, a plurality of servers are connected using a communication path such as a public telephone network. Each server is connected to a plurality of clients by a communication path such as a local area network.

The sending client creates a message to be sent and sends the message to the server. The server delivers the message to the destination server via the communication path. When a message is delivered from a server located elsewhere, the receiving server stores the received message in the receiving mailbox. The client retrieves the message stored in the receiving mailbox and addressed to the recipient.

As a mail delivery service from a server implemented in the above conventional system, CGI is available.
(Common Gateway Interface)
There is a method using such as. This is a service provided in a server that can connect the above-mentioned sending client side device with an Internet browser.

[0006] As a time service realized by the above-mentioned conventional system, there is a time designated batch transmission performed by a mailing list or the like. This is a service in which when the amount of received mail becomes huge each time, the mail to be sent is put on hold, compressed at a specified time, and sent.

A method for transmitting a designated time of an email is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
0-324158. This is a service in which a message that stores the transmission time is transmitted to the server, the transmission time information is read by the server, and transmission is performed at the specified time.

A method for surely receiving a mail at a designated time is proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-92735. This is a service in which a message in which a receivable time is stored is transmitted in advance to a server that is very close to the recipient, the reception permission information is read by the server, and the message is correctly received at a specified time.

[0009]

The mail delivery service in the above-mentioned mail delivery system is mainly intended to provide instant information to others, and has a very limited range (mainly self).
It was never used for providing information to the designated time, such as schedule management.

When a server in the conventional CGI service performs time-specified transmission, if the destination address can be set arbitrarily, it is possible to play tricks to send mail at a fixed time. Generally, the CGI service has high anonymity, and thus has a high risk of becoming a malicious mischief.

Regarding the time designated transmission service, the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
The method in 000-324158 is realized by sending a message with a special character string added on the sending side. In order to realize it, the sending client needs a mechanism to generate the above special character string, but this is an extra resource for the service user (acquiring a new client device or learning the special character string mechanism). work)
To request.

[0012] Further, in the method of the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-92735, when a message is generated, distribution is carried out in advance to a server which is very close to the receiving client. If this is canceled, a new message for cancellation must be sent to the above server. But,
In this case, even a message that is not transmitted eventually circulates in the network, resulting in a waste of network resources. Consumption of network resources is increasing due to the rapid development of information transmission media in recent years. Therefore, I want to suppress this as much as possible.

Therefore, in the conventional method, if a method of sending an e-mail at a designated time is provided, there is a risk of mischief,
It can be said that it wastes resources of service users and networks.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mail delivery method capable of designating a time, which prevents misuse and wastes resources of service users and networks.

[0015]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention sets a server to associate a message to be transmitted, a designated transmission time, and a destination e-mail address permitted by the destination in advance in the server, When the designated transmission time has passed, the set message is transmitted to the destination mail address. This allows service users to
It becomes possible to send a message to a partner (mainly the service user himself) who is permitted to use the service in advance at a designated time.

It is more preferable to add the following features to the server. First feature: Allows cancellation of already registered messages.

Second feature: The designated transmission time is generated based on a preset rule to automate the transmission of uniform messages frequently set by the user. The rule set in advance here means a time point that comes periodically, such as 6:00 am every day, 3:00 pm every Wednesday, and 2:00 am on August 3 every year.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, the present invention is configured as a system using a server that can use CGI on the Internet. The present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of its technical idea.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a client for instructing message transmission, 2 is a server for storing a message and transmitting it as an e-mail at a specified time, 3a and 4 are e-mails to be sent, and permission for mail transmission by this system is given in advance. The client is attached (a method of permitting transmission will be described later). 1 and 2, 2 and 3a, and 2 and 4 are connected to each other via a network (Internet in this configuration).

The client 1 instructing the transmission transmits the user ID, the message, the designated transmission time, and the destination mail address using CGI. The server 2 receives the transmitted data with the CGI receiving device 2a, and determines with the user authentication device 2b whether the sender of the data is a user registered as a sender in the present system. When the user authentication is passed, the destination email address checking device 2c using the destination email address database 2d checks whether the destination email address is permitted. The data that has passed through this is stored in the data storage device 2e.

The server 2 checks whether or not the designated transmission time of each data stored in the storage device 2e has passed the present time by the time coincidence checking device 2f using the clock 2g. When the current time has passed, the related message is transmitted as mail by the mail transmitting device 2h to the address indicated by the destination mail address. The sent mail is received by the client 3a or the client 4, which is the permitted address.

FIG. 2 shows a flow of processing of one mail in the server 2. This process is executed when there is an instruction to set a message from a client that instructs to send a message such as 1.

In process 5a, it is checked using the user database whether the sender of the data is the user registered as the sender. If the user is a registered user, process 5b
Then, it is inspected whether the destination e-mail address is permitted in advance. If it is permitted, it is recognized as the official data for mail transmission in this system, and is stored in the data storage device 2e in process 5c.

When a plurality of destination mail addresses are designated, the process 5b is performed for each of them. Through the above processing, only the data related to the permitted destination mail address is stored in the data storage device.

FIG. 3 shows a designated time mail transmission process in the server 2. It is assumed that this processing is started by a starting device linked with a clock and is executed at regular intervals.

In process 6a, the data in the data storage device 2e is retrieved. In process 6b, the designated transmission time of the extracted data is compared with the current time of the clock 2g. When the designated transmission time has passed the current time, in process 6c, the message of the data and the destination mail address are taken out and transmitted as a mail from the mail transmitting device 2h. The process of this flow is repeated for the number of data contained in the data storage device 2e.

Regarding the data deletion, the client 1 which instructs the transmission, the user ID, the designated transmission time,
Send the destination email address using CGI. The server 2 receives the transmitted data with the CGI receiving device 2a, and determines with the user authentication device 2b whether the sender of the data is a user registered as a sender in the present system. When the user authentication is passed, the data is detected and erased from the data storage device 2e based on the user ID, the designated transmission time, and the destination mail address.

It should be noted that, every day at 6 am and every Wednesday at 3 pm
When using a customary law such as 2:00 am on August 3, every year, information indicating this customary law to the time coincidence inspection device (for example, information such as year, month, etc. is indicated by "-"). If the specifications are separated, if it is 3:00 am on August 9th every year, ey
-8-9-3)) and decode it to the time closest to the current time (in the above example, the current date and time is 2).
If it is March 3, 001, it will be 2001-8-9-3). Further, the data previously decoded by the conversion device may be stored in the data storage device. At that time, it is expected that the original data will be stored in another place.

FIG. 4 shows a method of permitting the destination address. 1 is a permission application client, 2 is a server, and 3b is an application destination client. 1 and 2, 2 and 3b are connected to each other by a network.

The permission application client 1 transmits the user ID and the permission application destination mail address using CGI. The server 2 receives the transmitted data with the CGI receiving device 2a, and determines with the user authentication device 2b whether the sender of the data is a user registered as a sender in the present system. When the user authentication is passed, a permission application mail as to whether to accept the mail delivery by the present system is transmitted from the mail transmission device 2h to the permission application destination mail address. In this permission application mail, the information of the client 1, the outline of the present system, and, in the case of approving the permission, the same mail should be returned, and in the case of denial, it should not be returned. At 3b, it is judged from the information of the transmitted permission application mail whether or not to accept the use of the system by one user, and if it is approval, a reply is made, and if it is denied, it is silently silenced. In case of reply, mail receiving device 2i
Received at, and the address is sent to the destination address database 2
Register to d. After that, it becomes possible for the user to send an email to 3b using this system.

In order to deal with the case where the application client 3b replies by mistake, it is better to request 3b to add information indicating approval (for example, a character string indicating approval) to the mail to be returned. At this time, the reply content is checked at 2, and registration in the destination address database 2d is permitted only when the information indicating approval is included.

FIG. 5 shows a flow when the transmission destination address of the server 2 is permitted. This process is executed when there is an instruction from the permission application client such as 1.

In process 7a, it is checked using the user database whether the sender of the data is the user registered as the sender. If the user is a registered user, process 7b
Then, to the permission application destination email address, send the email 2h
Send the permission request email. When a permission approval mail is returned from the permission application destination to the mail receiving device 2i, the address is registered in the destination mail address database 2d, and thereafter, the user can send a mail to the address using the system. .

Further, the present invention can be applied to, for example, a LAN in a company.
It is also possible to prevent email transmission to the outside by the sender's erroneous operation by implementing the permission on the destination address to the server administrator and limiting the permission address to the company's email address.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide a time-specified mail delivery method that prevents waste of service users and network resources while preventing mischief by allowing mail to be sent only to addresses that are allowed to send to. . Also, this system is considered to be particularly useful for transmitting information to itself (such as schedule management) rather than transmitting information to others because of the necessity of registering the transmission partner.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a mail delivery system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process of storing time-specified transmission data in the server of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a process of performing time designated transmission in the server of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a destination mail address application of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process of applying for a destination mail address in the server of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols] 1. Sending client 2. server 3a. Receiving client 3b. Send permission application client 4. Receiving client

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. In a mail delivery system for delivering a message by designating a receiving device, means for associating a message to be sent, a designated sending time and a destination mail address with each other and setting the server, and setting the destination mail address. Means for performing only for those who are permitted in advance to the destination, and means for permitting setting of the destination email address,
A mail delivery system, comprising means for transmitting the set message to a destination mail address when the designated transmission time has passed in the server. 2. The mail delivery system according to claim 1, further comprising means for designating a specific message with the designated transmission time designated to cancel, and means for canceling the message designated to cancel. A mail delivery system that features that. 3. The mail delivery system according to claim 1, further comprising means for generating the designated transmission time based on a preset law, and means for setting the law on the server. And mail delivery system. 4. A receiving device for realizing the mail delivery system according to claim 1, comprising a means for receiving the message, a transmission time, and a destination mail address. 5. A storage device for realizing the mail delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the storage device stores the message, a transmission time, and a destination mail address in association with each other. 6. A device for realizing the mail delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the time measuring means measures the current time, the means compares the measured current time with the transmission time, and the current time. And a means for sending a corresponding message to a specified mail address when the time has passed. 7. A device for realizing the mail delivery system according to claim 1, comprising means for requesting permission to preset the destination mail address, and means for setting presence / absence of permission. Equipped with. 8. A storage medium storing software for realizing the mail delivery system according to claim 1. 9. An apparatus for realizing the mail delivery system according to claim 3, wherein the means for generating the designated transmission time based on a preset law and the means for setting the law on the server. And a device with.