JP2005057585A - System and server for mail inquiry - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To know the receiving condition of Internet mail using an arbitral portable telephone terminal. <P>SOLUTION: The mail inquiry system (100) comprises a mail server (10) for storing Internet mail exchanged according to the Internet communication protocol, and a portable telephone network (102) communicably connected with the mail server over the Internet (103). The network comprises portable telephone terminals (20) for transmitting/receiving portable telephone mail closed to the network; and a mail inquiry server (40) which receives portable telephone mail sent from the portable telephone terminal, inquires of the mail server about the specified stored information of Internet mail based on the received portable telephone mail, and sends the portable telephone mail with the described inquiry result from the mail server to the portable telephone terminal. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a mail inquiry system in the field of digital information communication using Internet mail propagated on the Internet and mobile telephone mail closed to a mobile telephone network.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, methods and services for confirming the reception status of Internet mail using a communication terminal such as a mobile phone terminal or a pager have been provided. These methods can be broadly divided into two. As a first conventional example, a server having an Internet mail mail inbox or a server closely linked to the mail inbox replicates the mail itself when receiving the mail. This is a method of transmitting information obtained by extracting a part of this mail or using it as notification information directly to a pager or mobile phone using the mail transfer function of the server. As this type of technology, for example, there is one described in Patent Document 1 described later.

Further, as a second conventional example, the above server is further provided with an http server function, and the http server is triggered by the fact that there is an http access from a mobile phone terminal having an http client function (WEB browser). There is a method of operating the Internet mail confirmation function provided above and displaying the mail reception status on the mobile phone terminal using http. As this type of technology, for example, there is one described in Patent Document 2 described later.
JP 2001-306471 A JP 2001-331427 A

  By the way, two conditions are mentioned in order to implement the first conventional example. The first condition is that the mobile phone terminal has a function of sending and receiving Internet mail. That is, it means that the mobile phone terminal has a function of handling the Internet communication protocol, and is required to have an ability to interpret and display the electronic mail format. However, in order to satisfy such a condition, there is an inconvenience that the processing capability and memory size required for the mobile phone terminal increase.

  The second condition is that the mobile phone terminal opens a route between the Internet and the mobile phone in the mobile phone network in order to receive Internet mail. However, this leads to the inflow of malicious mail that can be sent inadvertently, such as so-called spam mail and mail with a virus.

  On the other hand, in order to implement the second conventional example, it is necessary to provide an http client function in the mobile phone terminal possessed by the user. In order to use the http client function by a mobile phone terminal in Japan and overseas, the user needs to make a use contract in advance with the mobile phone operator and pay a monthly usage fee for the http client function. In general, a mobile phone terminal having an http client function is often more expensive than one having no http client function.

  The mail inquiry system according to the present invention is a mail inquiry system comprising a mail server that stores Internet mail communicated according to an Internet communication protocol, and a mobile phone network that is connected to the mail server via the Internet so as to be communicable. The mobile phone network receives a mobile phone terminal that transmits / receives a mobile phone mail closed to the mobile phone network, and receives a mobile phone email transmitted from the mobile phone terminal. A mail inquiry server that inquires the stored information of the Internet mail to the mail server and transmits a mobile phone mail describing the inquiry result from the mail server to the mobile phone terminal.

  The mail inquiry server according to the present invention is a mail inquiry server provided in a mobile phone network that is communicably connected via the Internet to a mail server that stores Internet mail communicated according to an Internet communication protocol, A mail transmission / reception unit that transmits / receives a cellular phone mail closed to a cellular phone network, an information storage unit that holds identification information for identifying a cellular phone terminal in association with email inquiry information including a predetermined mail server address, and the storage An information processing unit that sets a command for inquiring stored information of Internet mail in the mail server using information of a part, an Internet communication part that communicates with the mail server based on the command, and the mail server And the mobile phone And having a mail creating unit that creates a cellular phone mail to the mobile telephone terminal transmitting the Lumpur destined.

  According to the mail inquiry system according to the present invention, a user of a mobile phone terminal can know the reception status of Internet mail on the Internet by using the mobile phone mail transmission / reception function that the terminal has as standard. . Therefore, the present invention can be implemented by any mobile phone terminal regardless of the presence / absence of the Internet mail transmission / reception function and the http client function. In addition, since the Internet mail stored information is inquired at the timing required by the user and a direct Internet connection from the mobile phone terminal is not required, the communication cost of the terminal is lower than that of the conventional method. Can be expected, and the reception of malicious Internet mail can be prevented.

  The mail inquiry server according to the present invention can provide the same effects as described above to any mobile phone terminal.

  The mail inquiry system of the present embodiment is provided in a mobile phone terminal as standard, and is a so-called short message service (hereinafter simply referred to as “SMS”: Short Massage Service), which is a mobile phone mail service closed to a mobile phone network. .) Is used to inquire the reception status of Internet mail such as the number of received mails stored in a mail server on the Internet and header information of the received mail.

  Since SMS mobile phone mail is transmitted and received between mobile phones using a control channel in call control of mobile phone terminals, as known in the art, the mobile phone mail send / receive function is It is provided as standard on an external mobile phone. In SMS, an identifier for identifying a terminal or a smart card paired with a telephone number, such as a telephone number, is normally used as a destination and a sender identifier, and cell phone mail transmission / reception management is performed using this identifier. Do.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a mail inquiry system according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a mail inquiry system 100 according to an embodiment includes a network 101 operated by a provider that provides an Internet mail service, and a mobile phone network 102 to which SMS provided by a mobile phone carrier is applied. Is provided. Both networks 101 and 102 are connected to be communicable with each other via the Internet 103 including a plurality of data communication paths.

  The network 101 by the Internet mail service includes an electronic mail server 10 that receives and stores Internet mail that propagates through the Internet 103 according to the Internet communication protocol. The electronic mail server 10 has a mail reception box (not shown) for storing received Internet mail, and stores Internet mail received from other electronic mail servers via the Internet 103 in the box. In addition, the mail in the box is delivered using POP3 to another terminal device via the Internet 103 and a terminal device directly connected to the network 101 using a telephone line or the like. As is known in the art, this POP3 is a protocol for reading an electronic mail into a terminal such as a PC, and is defined by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).

  Normally, when connecting to the Internet 103 from any network, there are devices for ensuring security and devices for assigning addresses on the Internet between the network and the Internet 103. The description in the example is omitted.

  On the other hand, the mobile phone network 102 includes a plurality of mobile phone terminals (20) used by a user, a mobile phone mail switch 30 that is a relay device that relays mobile phone mail between the mobile phone terminals 20, and the switch. And a mail inquiry server 40 for making an inquiry about Internet mail based on the mobile phone mail received from the mobile phone terminal 20 via 30.

  The mobile phone terminal 20 is the same as a conventionally used mobile phone terminal that is wirelessly and wiredly connected to the mobile phone mail exchanger 30 and has a function of transmitting and receiving mobile phone mail. It is assumed that the mobile phone terminal 20 can send a mobile phone mail to the mail inquiry server 40 by the user's operation, receive the mobile phone mail from the mail inquiry server 40, and display the contents of this mail to the user.

  The mail inquiry server 40 is assigned a predetermined telephone number (for example, 1000) in the mobile phone network 102, and uses this telephone number to send a mobile phone mail via the mobile phone terminal 20 and the mobile phone mail exchanger 30. Exchange.

  The configuration of the mail inquiry server 40 will be described with reference to the block diagram shown in FIG. The illustrated mail transmitting / receiving unit 41 transmits / receives a mobile phone mail to / from the mobile phone terminal 20 of the mobile phone network 102. The mail interpreter 42 receives the mobile phone mail from the mail transmitter / receiver 41 and extracts the telephone number of the mobile phone terminal 20 and the payload of the mail that are identifiers indicating the sender of the mail. Note that the payload of the mobile phone mail is a portion that stores the body (content) described in the mail by the mobile phone user.

  The information processing unit 43 sets a command for inquiring Internet mail accumulated information in the electronic mail server 10 based on the telephone number and payload extracted by the mail interpretation unit 42. The command setting procedure in the information processing unit 43 will be described in detail later.

  The clock 44 receives a time inquiry from the information processing unit 43 and returns the date and time at that time as a response. Information returned from the clock 44 is used to know the current time when the information processing unit 43 sets a command.

  The user information storage unit 45 stores a table 45a including mail reference information, which will be described later, associated with the identification information of the user or mobile phone, and the mail server information of the table according to a request from the information processing unit 43 return it. The table 45a of the user information storage unit 45 is, for example, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the table 45 a includes “caller number”, which is a telephone number for identifying the mobile phone terminal 20, “last inquiry time”, “mail server address”, and user identifier. Mail inquiry information consisting of a certain “ID” and “password” is associated with each other. It is assumed that these pieces of information other than the “previous inquiry time” in the table 45a are registered in advance.

  The “previous inquiry time” in the table 45a is the date and time when the mobile phone mail is received from the same transmission source number, and is updated each time a mail is received from the mobile phone terminal 20, as will be described later. Information. The “mail server address” is an address on the Internet of the e-mail server 10 that should inquire the stored information of the Internet mail, and is uniquely determined on the Internet. “ID” is a user identifier managed by the e-mail server 10, and by using it together with “password”, it becomes possible to access Internet mail of any user and storage status information of the mail.

  The POP3 communication unit 46 is a communication unit for obtaining information related to the reception status of Internet mail via the Internet 103 with respect to the electronic mail server 103. The POP3 communication unit 46 displays, from the email server 10, a list of stored Internet mails addressed to at least any user (destination) of the cellular phone network 102 and a list of header information of the mails in the POP3 protocol. Means for processing a protocol for receiving;

  The header information of the Internet mail indicates the mail source address, the transmission date and time, the subject (title) of the electronic mail, and the like. The POP3 communication unit 46 sends the address of the e-mail server 10, an arbitrary user ID, and the password of the user from the information processing unit 43 in order to communicate with the e-mail server 10 according to the POP3 protocol. receive.

  The TCP / IP communication unit 47 includes a packet transmission / reception protocol for communicating with the electronic mail server 10 via the Internet 103. The TCP / IP communication unit 47 receives commands and information from the information processing unit 43 via the POP3 communication means 46, and communicates with the electronic mail server 10 using these. Further, the TCP / IP communication unit 47 supplies information on the response from the electronic mail server 10 to the command to the information processing unit 43 via the POP3 communication unit 46. In the present embodiment, the POP3 communication unit 46 and the TCP / IP communication unit 47 correspond to the Internet communication unit of the present invention.

  The mail creation unit 48 receives information indicating a response from the electronic mail server 10 and the telephone number of the mobile phone terminal 20 to which the response is to be notified from the information processing unit 43, and sends the response to the mobile phone terminal 20 as a destination. A mobile phone mail describing the contents is newly created, and this mail is transferred to the mail transmitting / receiving unit 41.

  Hereinafter, the operation flow of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, an example is shown in which the mobile phone terminal 20 whose telephone number is “13501401” inquires the Internet mail storage information in the electronic mail server 10 of the server address “mail.aaa.ne.jp”.

  First, the mobile phone terminal 20 transmits a mobile phone mail requesting an inquiry of stored information of the Internet mail to the mail inquiry server 40 having the telephone number 1000. In the mail inquiry server 40, the mail transmission / reception unit 41 starts operating when the mail is received via the mobile phone mail exchanger 30 (step S1). The mobile phone mail addressed to the mail inquiry server 40 from the mobile phone terminal 20 is an email in which nothing is written in the text or a mail in which a predetermined word such as “stored inquiry” is written in the mobile phone network 102 in advance. Arrange as appropriate. The mail transmission / reception unit 41 passes the received mobile phone mail to the mail interpretation unit 42 (step S2). The mail interpretation unit 42 reads “13503401” that is the caller telephone number from the mail (step S 3), and passes this to the information processing unit 43.

  When receiving the caller telephone number from the mail interpretation unit 42, the information processing unit 43 reads the contents of the table 45a from the user information storage unit 45 using this value as a key (step S4). That is, from the table 45a, “2003/01/23/14: 56: 20” of the previous inquiry time, which is a record corresponding to “135401401” of “source telephone number”, and “mail.aaa. ne.jp ", ID" user1 ", and password" pass1 ".

  Next, the information processing unit 43 refers to the value of the clock 44 (step S5). For example, if the current time is January 23, 2003 14:57:32, the value read from the clock 44 is “2003/01/23/14: 57: 32”. The information processing section 43 reads the previous inquiry time “2003/01/23/14: 56: 20” read from the table 45a and the value “2003/01/23/14: 57: 32” read from the clock 44. And the difference between the two is obtained (step S6). Here, the difference between the two is “1 minute 12 seconds”.

  The information processing unit 43 compares an arbitrary predetermined time threshold with the difference (step S7). If the time threshold value is set to “1 minute (60 seconds)”, for example, the difference value “1 minute 12 seconds” is longer than the threshold value (step S7: Yes). In this case, the information processing unit 43 sets a command for acquiring the stored number of Internet mails as stored information, and issues this command to the POP3 communication unit 46 (step S8).

  If the current time value read from the clock 44 is “2003/01/23/14: 57: 15”, this value and the previous inquiry time “2003/01/23 read from the table 45a”. / 14: 56: 20 ", the difference between the two is" 55 seconds ". This value “55 seconds” is shorter than the threshold value “1 minute (60 seconds)” (step S7: No). At this time, the information processing unit 43 issues a command for acquiring a list of header information of Internet mail as accumulated information to the POP3 communication unit 46 (step S12).

  The information processing unit 43 sets the current time value “2003/01/23/14: 57: 32” or “2003/01/23/14: 57: 15” read from the clock 44 to the previous inquiry time of the table 45a. Is overwritten (steps S9 and S13). When the information processing unit 43 sends a command to the POP3 communication unit 46, the mail server address “mail.aaa.ne.jp”, the ID “user1”, the password “ pass1 "is given together with the command.

  The POP3 communication unit 46 processes a command for acquiring the accumulated number of Internet mails (step S8) or a command for acquiring a list of e-mail header information (step S12), a mail server address, an ID, and a password. When received from the unit 43, these are converted into POP3 commands and passed to the TCP / IP communication unit 47. Then, the TCP / IP communication unit 47 transmits one of the commands for inquiring the stored information of the Internet mail after performing user login in accordance with POP3 controlled by the POP3 communication unit 46. Thereafter, when a mail accumulation number information or a list of header information that is a response to the inquiry is received from the electronic mail server 10, logout is performed (steps S10 and S14). Steps S10 and S14 are procedures defined in the conventionally known POP3 and will not be described in detail here.

  In the above procedure, if the stored information to be inquired is the number of stored mails, as a response, how many Internet mails corresponding to the ID “user1” and the password “pass1” in the electronic mail server 10 are currently stored. Is returned, and the inquiry content is header information, the source address, the transmission date and time, the e-mail subject (title), etc. of the corresponding Internet mail stored in the e-mail server 10 are displayed. Returned as a response.

  When the TCP / IP communication unit 47 receives the response from the electronic mail server 10 as described above, it passes these pieces of information to the user information storage unit 45 via the POP3 communication unit 46 (steps S11 and S15). . The information processing unit 43 passes the received mail accumulation number or header information list and the caller telephone number “1350123401” of the mobile phone terminal 20 to which a response is to be notified to the mail creating unit 48.

  The mail creation unit 48 sets the caller telephone number “1350123401” as the destination based on the mail accumulated record or header information list and the caller telephone number “1350123401”, and sets the mail accumulated number or header information in the payload. A new mobile phone mail set with the above list is created (step S16), and this mail is passed to the mail transmitting / receiving unit 41.

  When receiving the mobile phone mail from the mail creating unit 48, the mail transmitting / receiving unit 41 transmits it to the mobile phone terminal 20 as the caller via the mobile phone mail switch 30 (step S17). When the mobile phone terminal 20 having the telephone number “1350123401” receives the mobile phone mail, the mobile phone terminal 20 displays the content of the mail on a display unit (not shown) in order to notify the user of the Internet mail inquiry result. With this, the inquiry procedure for the stored information of the Internet mail in the mail inquiry system 100 is completed.

  As described above, according to the mail inquiry system 100, the mail inquiry server 40 inquires the mail storage information of the electronic mail server 10 on the Internet 103 based on the mobile phone mail from the mobile phone terminal 20, and By notifying the mobile phone terminal 20 of the inquiry result, the user can connect to the mobile phone terminal 20 to directly store the number of Internet mails or the header information by mobile phone mail in SMS without directly connecting to the Internet 103. The contents of the list can be grasped.

  In the second embodiment of the mail inquiry system according to the present invention, the determination in step S7 described with reference to FIG. 4 in the first embodiment, that is, the time interval at which the mobile phone mail is received from the same mobile phone terminal 20, In the determination based on the comparison with the set time threshold value, the information processing unit 43 of the mail inquiry server 40 makes a determination opposite to the determination in the first embodiment.

  Specifically, the information processing unit 43 compares the time threshold value with the difference, and issues a header information list acquisition command to the POP3 communication unit 46 when the difference is longer than the threshold value. When the difference is shorter than the threshold, a mail accumulation number acquisition command is issued. According to the mail inquiry system 100 of the second embodiment, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained.

  In the third embodiment of the mail inquiry system according to the present invention, the inquiry contents of the stored information of the Internet mail are designated by the mobile phone terminal 20, and the mail inquiry server 40 makes an inquiry to the electronic mail server 10 according to the contents. Do. The inquiry content is one of the accumulated number of Internet mails, a list of header information, and predetermined header information in the list.

  In order to identify the above-described inquiry content, the mobile phone network 102 determines in advance the correspondence between the text of the mobile phone mail transmitted from the mobile phone terminal 20 and the inquiry content. For example, when inquiring the accumulated number of Internet mail, nothing is described in the text of the mobile phone mail, and when inquiring a list of header information, “LIST” is described in the text, and the second of the list When referring to the header information, the description contents of the mobile phone mail are appropriately determined so that the inquiry contents can be identified by the mail inquiry server 40, such as “2” in the text.

  When the mobile phone mail as described above is received by the mail transmitting / receiving unit 41 of the mail inquiry server 40, the information processing unit 43 refers to the value of the clock 44 (step S5) and compares the previous inquiry time with the current time (step). Without performing S6 and S7), either the mail accumulation number acquisition command or the header information acquisition command is issued to the POP3 communication unit 46 in accordance with the command described in the payload. According to the mail inquiry system 100 of the third embodiment, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained, and further, the contents of the inquiry to the electronic mail server 10 can be appropriately designated on the user side.

  In the mobile phone network 102 of each of the embodiments described above, the mail inquiry server 40 is configured to send and receive mobile phone mail to the mobile phone terminal 20 via the mobile phone mail exchanger 30, but the present invention is implemented. In order to do so, the mail inquiry server 40 is provided with an interface for directly transmitting / receiving mobile phone mail to / from the mobile phone terminal 20, whereby the mail inquiry server 40 handles mobile phone mail without the intervention of the mobile phone mail exchanger 30. You may do it.

  The present invention does not require a direct Internet connection from the terminal when the user of the mobile phone terminal inquires about the reception status of the Internet mail, and therefore does not have an Internet mail transmission / reception function or an http client function. The present invention can also be applied to a mobile phone terminal. This makes it easy to grasp the mail reception status of the mail server in advance by using the mobile phone terminal as described above before performing mail receiving work on another terminal that can be connected to the Internet, such as a personal computer. it can.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the Example of the mail inquiry system which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the inquiry server in the Example of this invention. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the user information storage part in the Example of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the Example of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Mail inquiry system 101 Network 102 Mobile phone network 103 Internet 10 E-mail server 20 Mobile phone terminal 30 Mobile phone mail switch 40 Mail inquiry server 41 Mail transmission / reception part 42 Mail interpretation part 43 Information processing part 44 Clock 45 User information storage part 45a Table 46 POP3 communication unit 47 TCP / IP communication unit 48 Mail creation unit

Claims (14)

A mail inquiry system comprising: a mail server that stores Internet mail communicated according to an Internet communication protocol; and a mobile phone network that is connected to the mail server through the Internet so as to be communicable,
The mobile phone network is
A mobile phone terminal for sending and receiving mobile phone emails closed to the mobile phone network;
A cellular phone that receives a cellular phone mail transmitted from the cellular phone terminal, queries the mail server for stored information of predetermined Internet mail based on the received cellular phone email, and describes a query result from the mail server A mail inquiry system, comprising: a mail inquiry server that transmits mail to the mobile phone terminal.   The mail inquiry system according to claim 1, further comprising a relay device that relays a mobile phone mail communicated between the mobile phone terminal and the mail inquiry server.   The mail inquiry server includes a mail transmission / reception unit that transmits / receives a mobile phone mail, an information storage unit that associates and holds mail inquiry information including an address of a predetermined mail server with identification information for identifying the mobile phone terminal, An information processing unit for setting a command for inquiring stored information of Internet mail in the mail server using information in a storage unit, an Internet communication unit for communicating with the mail server based on the command, and the mail server The mail inquiry system according to claim 1, further comprising: a mail creating unit that creates a mobile phone mail addressed to the mobile phone terminal.   4. The mail inquiry system according to claim 3, wherein the information processing unit sets the command using the accumulated number of Internet mails as the accumulated information.   4. The mail inquiry system according to claim 3, wherein the information processing unit sets the command using a list of header information including a source address of Internet mail stored in the mail server as the stored information.   The information processing unit sets a command corresponding to the inquiry of the stored information when a reception interval of mobile phone mail transmitted from the mobile phone terminal at a time is smaller than a preset time threshold value. The mail inquiry system according to claim 4 or 5.   The information processing unit sets a command corresponding to the inquiry of the stored information when a reception interval of mobile phone mail transmitted from the mobile phone terminal at a time is larger than a preset time threshold. The mail inquiry system according to claim 4 or 5. The mail transmission / reception unit, from the mobile phone terminal, inquires about the stored number of Internet mails, inquires about a list of header information including a source address of the Internet mails, and stores predetermined header information in the header information list. Receive a cell phone email to request one of the referrals,
4. The mail inquiry system according to claim 3, wherein the information processing section selectively sets a command corresponding to the mobile phone mail request received by the mail transmitting / receiving section. A mail inquiry server provided in a mobile phone network that is communicably connected via the Internet to a mail server that stores Internet mail communicated according to an Internet communication protocol,
A mail transmission / reception unit that transmits / receives a cellular phone mail closed to the cellular phone network, an information storage unit that associates and holds identification information for identifying a cellular phone terminal and email inquiry information including an address of a predetermined mail server, An information processing unit that sets a command for inquiring stored information of Internet mail in the mail server using information in a storage unit, an Internet communication unit that communicates with the mail server based on the command, and the mail server And a mail creation server that creates a mobile phone mail addressed to the mobile phone terminal that has transmitted the mobile phone mail.   10. The mail inquiry server according to claim 9, wherein the information processing unit sets the command using the accumulated number of the Internet mail as the accumulated information.   10. The mail inquiry server according to claim 9, wherein the information processing unit sets the command by using a list of header information including a source address of the Internet mail stored in the mail server as the stored information.   The information processing unit sets a command corresponding to the inquiry of the stored information when a reception interval of mobile phone mail transmitted from a mobile phone terminal at a time is smaller than a preset time threshold value. The mail inquiry server according to claim 10 or 11.   The information processing unit sets a command corresponding to the inquiry of the stored information when a reception interval of mobile phone mail transmitted from a mobile phone terminal at a time is larger than a preset time threshold. The mail inquiry server according to claim 10 or 11. The mail transmission / reception unit, from the mobile phone terminal, inquires about the stored number of Internet mails, inquires about a list of header information including a source address of the Internet mails, and stores predetermined header information in the header information list. Receive a cell phone email to request one of the referrals,
10. The mail inquiry server according to claim 9, wherein the information processing section selectively sets a command corresponding to the request for the mobile phone mail received by the mail transmitting / receiving section.

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