JP3335149B2 - Email notification system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail arrival confirmation system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system that enables confirmation of incoming e-mail while keeping the load on an access point in a communication line or an Internet service provider to a minimum.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Today, a person who has a mail address and can use a communication terminal capable of connecting to the Internet can use the communication terminal without being restricted by time and place, and with the convenience of the other party. Regardless, you can exchange emails. In most cases, sent e-mails are sent instantly to the Internet service
The mail server at the provider is reached, and the recipient can read the contents of the e-mail received by accessing the mail server, and write back a reply if necessary. By exchanging e-mails several times while quoting the e-mail from the other party in their own e-mail, it is possible to make a communication based on the other party's remarks and reach a complicated agreement while keeping a record of the communication contents of both parties Is also possible. Also, for example, when exchanging e-mail between X and Y, a carbon copy (cc) e-mail is sent to a third party, Z, and a communication record between XY is left on Z's computer. It is also easy to do. Another characteristic is that the cost that each user has to bear in order to use e-mail is much lower than, for example, conventional international telephone charges.

[0003] As described above, e-mail via the Internet has remarkably superior characteristics as compared with communication using a telephone or a facsimile, and its use is rapidly expanding. Certainly, there are many issues behind outstanding features, such as security issues, that need to be resolved.
However, it cannot be denied that the spread of e-mail is changing the way business is carried out in corporations, the form of research at universities and research institutions, and the way of communication between individuals. For example, focusing on the spread of e-mail in companies, the wider the range of contacts that can exchange e-mail, the more
Dependency on e-mail tends to increase. Relying on e-mail means that you cannot proceed without receiving e-mail from the other party. Since the e-mail is not a communication means synchronized with the other party like a telephone, the reception of the e-mail is not automatically notified to the recipient, and a confirmation operation is required. In fact, it is not uncommon for the user to check the incoming e-mail many times during the day. Email·
Since the address is basically assigned to each individual, all the persons who work by using the e-mail in the company will check the incoming call many times a day.

[0004] Next, the procedure of a conventional actual confirmation of incoming e-mail will be discussed. However, in this application,
It is assumed that an Internet connection using ISDN, which is capable of performing higher-speed data communication than a normal analog telephone line and is rapidly spreading, is assumed. In order to know the status of incoming e-mails to yourself, access to the Internet service provider (ISP)
An ISDN circuit-switched connection is made to the point (AP), a network connection is made using the B channel, and a mail server is inquired about the incoming state.

More specifically, the e-mail arrival check operation can be divided into the following three stages. First, in a first phase, a user accesses an access service of a contracted Internet service provider from a terminal adapter or a dial-up router (TA) to which an electronic mail receiving device such as a personal computer is connected. Attempt a circuit-switched connection to the point (line connection procedure). When a circuit-switched connection is established and data transmission and reception become possible, the second phase
According to a network connection procedure, data exchange and authentication for a user to connect to the Internet are performed between the adapter and a remote access server (RAS) on the access point side (Internet connection procedure).
As a result, when the environment for the user to access the Internet is established, as a third phase, the e-mail reception status from the e-mail transmission / reception program (mailer) mounted on the PC to the mail server of the contracted provider is received. And inform the user of the result (E-mail arrival confirmation procedure). FIG. 1 illustrates the outline of the conventional e-mail arrival check method.

[0006] Unless the user actually performs the above confirmation procedure, the user cannot confirm the arrival of the e-mail. In addition, whether or not the e-mail addressed to the user has arrived is completely unknown until the connection operation is performed. As a result, if there is no incoming e-mail, the connection operation is useless for the user. Also, considering the burden on the remote access server side of the provider, as a result, unnecessary confirmation of the incoming call overloaded the server capacity and wasted the line traffic. .

[0007] Further, such confirmation of incoming e-mail is not free, and an Internet usage fee is incurred. There are two types of costs borne by a user when using the Internet: charging by a carrier such as a telephone company and charging by an Internet service provider (ISP) under contract. The cost borne by the user in each of the above three phases is as follows when charging by the carrier and charging by the provider are separated.

[0008]

[Table 1]

[0009] As shown in Table 1, in phase 1, no charges are incurred by carriers or providers. However, in the phase 2, the establishment of the circuit-switched connection causes the carrier to be charged thereafter, and in the phase 3, the Internet connection is established, and the mailer inquires the mail server of the provider to confirm the incoming call. When this is done, charging by the provider also occurs. Therefore, at present, when e-mail arrival confirmation is performed, even if there is no e-mail arrival, the user is charged from both the carrier and the provider by confirming that there is no e-mail. Will be.

[0010] Attempts have been made to avoid the problem of confirming the arrival of electronic mail. For example, when an e-mail is sent from X to Y, the e-mail is sent to a mail server installed at an Internet service provider to which Y has a contract. In this case, the Internet service provider uses the user information (UUI), which is one of the information elements in the call setup (setup) message, to the terminal adapter of the recipient Y. Thus, a proposal has been made to convey the arrival of an electronic mail addressed to Y. The user who has received the notification reads the contents of the user / user information in the ISDN D channel and notifies the user of the incoming e-mail. According to this method, a series of confirmation operations starting from the start of the communication software by the user becomes unnecessary.

[0011]

The conventional e-mail arrival confirmation system employs a format (so-called push type) in which a notification is transmitted from an Internet service provider to a terminal adapter of an e-mail recipient. Therefore, on the mail server side,
It is necessary to know in advance which subscribers want this notification. That is, the user of this notification service must be registered in advance on the mail server side. In addition, in the above-described conventional system, an e-mail arrival notification is included in the user / user information. However, at present, when the user / user information is used, it is necessary to send a notification to a carrier such as a telephone company. Pre-registration is required.

[0012]

An electronic mail arrival notification system according to the present invention comprises: an interface means such as a terminal adapter disposed between an electronic mail receiving device used by a user and a circuit-switched ISDN network; An exclusive access point for confirming the arrival of an e-mail, which is provided at the Internet service provider and including a dedicated server for confirming the arrival of an e-mail, and an incoming e-mail notification means provided in the interface means. You. The interface means sends the call to the dedicated access point by including information on the user in the call setup message, and sends the call to the dedicated server for confirming the arrival of the e-mail. An inquiry is made at predetermined time intervals as to whether an e-mail has arrived. The time interval of this inquiry can be freely set according to circumstances such as the necessity of confirmation by the user and the capability of the server. For example, once per hour is assumed. The dedicated server sends out a call message when there is an incoming e-mail, and disconnects the line without sending a call message when there is no incoming e-mail and without responding to an incoming call from the interface means. When the call message is sent, the interface means determines that there is an incoming e-mail addressed to the user and notifies the user of the incoming e-mail by, for example, turning on a designated lamp on the terminal adapter. By activating the means, the user is notified of the incoming e-mail. If the user wishes to immediately receive the confirmed e-mail, the user can establish an Internet connection as usual and read the e-mail.

In the electronic mail arrival notification system according to the present invention, information about the user, such as a mail address and a password, is transmitted using a subaddress in the call setup message.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, unlike FIG. 1 referred to in the description of the prior art, the access point A dedicated to confirming the arrival of an electronic mail is added to the Internet service provider in addition to the normal access point AP.
P2 (portion in the broken line in FIG. 2) is provided.

A personal computer (PC) used by a user as an e-mail receiving device is connected to a terminal adapter or a dial-up router (TA2). Has a function.

The terminal adapter TA2 is set so as to automatically inquire the dedicated server in the dedicated access point AP2 about the presence or absence of an incoming e-mail at regular time intervals. Terminal adapter T
The time interval at which A2 makes an inquiry can be empirically optimized for parameters such as the number of e-mail users per line, the average processing time, and the number of lines. For example, by default, once every 30 minutes, once every hour, etc. It can also be determined as needed by the user. Furthermore, it is also possible to provide a selection means, for example, a switch so that the user does not make an inquiry under certain conditions.

As described above, the system according to the present invention for confirming the arrival of an e-mail at a predetermined time interval is convenient for a user who may read the e-mail from a plurality of places. Of incoming e-mail is confirmed at a certain time t _1,
Assume that the lamp on the terminal adapter TA2 at the user's home is turned on. Then, the user obtains the time t
On the _first, another location (workplace and outdoors) Niite, the access from another location on the same mail server, e-mail that caused to turn on the home of the terminal adapter TA of the lamp to the time t ₁ Download and read.
If the time interval of the incoming confirmation is set to 1 hour, at time t ₂ is 1 hour after the time t _1, the next incoming check is performed. After the e-mail that has been read in the previous workplace, if there is a new incoming call during one hour until the time t _2, because the new incoming e-mail into the mail server does not exist, it was lit home Confirmation lamp goes out. Thus, if by controlling the lighting on and off of the lamp to reflect the latest incoming information at predetermined time intervals, the user who has come home immediately after time t ₂ is still lit Look at the lamp and consequently avoid having to access the mail server again to download the already read e-mail again.

In the above description, it is assumed that a general setting has been made in the mailer that when the electronic mail is downloaded, the electronic mail does not remain in the mail server. On the other hand, if the download is set so that the e-mail remains on the mail server for a certain period of time, it will be unread at the time of confirmation on the mail server (that is, it has never been downloaded)
The presence or absence of a new incoming call may be determined based on the presence or absence of an e-mail. Unlike such a setting, it is also possible to make a setting such that the lamp once lit does not go out.

In practice, an ISDN circuit-switched connection request, that is, a call setup message is sent from the terminal adapter TA2 to the dedicated access point AP2. The destination subaddress information element and the originating subaddress information element in the circuit-switched connection request directed to the dedicated access point AP2 include a mail address necessary for inquiring of the dedicated server about the presence or absence of an incoming electronic mail. It contains information about the user, such as email and password. Then, the mail assigned to the user
The server is queried for the presence or absence of incoming e-mail. When there is an incoming e-mail, the dedicated server sends out a call message. When there is no incoming e-mail, the dedicated server does not send out the call message and disconnects the circuit switching connection request from the user side. Therefore, only the user information is transmitted to the dedicated server via the sub-address in the D channel, and the line connection is not established. When the circuit switching connection request is disconnected after the calling message, the terminal adapter TA2 on the user side determines that there is an incoming e-mail, and displays the presence of the incoming e-mail.

That is, the dedicated server in the dedicated access point AP2 for confirming the arrival of an electronic mail selects whether or not to send a call message to the user in response to an inquiry from the user regarding the presence or absence of the incoming electronic mail. This notifies the user of the presence or absence of the incoming e-mail. The terminal adapter TA2 on the user side
The lighting of the lamp is determined according to whether or not the call message has been received.

FIG. 3 shows a case where there is an incoming electronic mail.
The processing sequence of the electronic mail arrival notification system according to the present invention between the terminal adapter TA2, the circuit-switched ISDN network and the dedicated server is illustrated. First, when the confirmation request shown in the upper left of FIG. 3 is issued to the terminal adapter TA2, the terminal adapter TA2 requests a call setup from the circuit switching ISDN network,
The circuit-switched ISDN returns a call setup acceptance to the terminal adapter TA2. Similarly, terminal adapter T
In response to the call setup request from A2, the circuit-switched ISDN exchanges a call setup request and a call setup acceptance with a dedicated server in the dedicated access point AP2. next,
The dedicated server inquires of the user's mail server whether there is an incoming e-mail based on the user's mail address and mail password included in the destination sub-address and the calling sub-address in the call setup message. In this case, since there is an incoming e-mail, the message "e-mail present" is returned from the mail server to the dedicated server. If there is an e-mail, as described above, a call message is transmitted to the terminal adapter TA2 via the circuit-switched ISDN network, and the terminal adapter TA2 notifies the user of the arrival of the e-mail. Is made. This display may be visual, such as the above-described lighting of the lamp, or may be accompanied by audio notification. What is important here is that, after a call message is sent from the dedicated server to the circuit-switched ISDN network, a signal for instructing disconnection is issued to the circuit-switched ISDN network and to the terminal adapter TA2. is there. In response to the disconnection command, a signal is issued from the terminal adapter TA2 to the circuit-switched ISDN network and from the circuit-switched ISDN network to the dedicated server to release the line. When the release is completed, the dedicated server switches to the circuit-switched ISDN, and then the circuit-switched ISDN.
A signal notifying the completion of the release is returned from the network to the terminal adapter TA2. It should be noted that in the above operation, the terminal adapter TA2 has not yet established the Internet connection, and the load on the normal access point and the communication line is reduced.

FIG. 4 shows a terminal adapter TA2 and a circuit-switched ISDN when there is no incoming e-mail.
The processing sequence of the electronic mail arrival notification system according to the present invention between the network and the dedicated server is illustrated. The processing in this case is almost the same as that in FIG.
The confirmation request shown in the upper left of FIG. 4 is issued to the terminal adapter TA2. In response to this confirmation request, the terminal adapter TA2
Requests call setup to the network, and the circuit-switched ISDN returns a call setup acceptance to the terminal adapter TA2. Similarly, in response to a call setup request from the terminal adapter TA2, the circuit-switched ISDN exchanges a call setup request and a call setup acceptance with a dedicated server in the dedicated access point AP2. Next, the dedicated server determines whether or not there is an incoming e-mail in the user's mail server based on the user's mail address and mail password included in the callee subaddress and caller subaddress in the call setup message. Inquire. In this case, since there is no incoming e-mail, the mail server returns a "no e-mail" message to the dedicated server. In the case of a "no e-mail" message, the dedicated server immediately sends a disconnection command to the circuit-switched ISDN network without sending a paging message and further to the terminal
Emit to adapter TA2 and respond to it
A signal is issued from the adapter TA2 to the circuit-switched ISDN network, and from the circuit-switched ISDN network to the dedicated server, instructing release of the line. As in the case of FIG. 3, when the release is completed, from the dedicated server to the circuit-switched ISDN network, and
Circuit-switched ISDN network to terminal adapter TA2
, A signal notifying the completion of release is returned. Also in this case, in the above operation, the terminal adapter TA
2 has not yet established an Internet connection,
As a result, the load on ordinary access points and communication lines is reduced.

In the embodiment described above, the dedicated server in the dedicated access point AP2 determines whether or not there is an incoming e-mail in response to a call setup request from the terminal adapter TA2 by sending or not sending a call message. And then disconnected. However, if certain conditions exist and the dedicated server needs to do so, the line is established in response to the incoming call and the terminal /
A configuration in which various information is transmitted to the adapter TA2 is also possible.

In general, the period during which an incoming e-mail is stored in the mail server is not unlimited, for example,
It may be limited to about two weeks. Therefore, when the deadline for the incoming e-mail to be deleted from the mail server without being read is approaching, the dedicated server responds to the inquiry from the terminal adapter TA2 to alert the recipient. Thus, it is possible to notify the sender and title of an e-mail to be deleted in the near future. Also, electronic mail may be given a priority according to its importance. At this time, if there is an incoming e-mail that is particularly important, the receiver may be notified of the sender or the title. Further, even when it is necessary to make an urgent communication from the Internet service provider to the subscriber, the dedicated server responds to the inquiry about the e-mail arrival confirmation from the terminal adapter TA2, and It is also possible to notify that there is a message.

In the e-mail arrival confirmation system according to the present invention, the dedicated server basically has a function of notifying the presence / absence of an incoming e-mail in response to a periodic inquiry from the terminal adapter TA2. By adopting a configuration in which a response is made when a certain condition is satisfied, a system more convenient for the user is provided. Therefore, in order to achieve the original object of the present invention of reducing the load on the communication line and the normal access point, and at the same time to improve the convenience on the user side, the dedicated server does not respond at all. It is preferable to adopt a configuration in which a dedicated server responds when necessary, instead of being configured as a terminal. As a result, a balance can be achieved between the two benefits of load reduction and convenience improvement.

[0026]

The electronic mail arrival notification system according to the present invention is not of the push type which transmits incoming information from the server side to the client side as described in the description of the prior art. In contrast to the push type, this is a type of system in which a user makes an inquiry at a predetermined time interval from a user to a dedicated server provided in an Internet service provider. Therefore, on the dedicated server side,
It is not necessary to register a user who wants the incoming call confirmation service in advance.

It is also easy for the same user to check incoming e-mail from a plurality of places where they are present, such as a house and a workplace. And, as described above, when downloading e-mails from a plurality of locations by controlling the lighting of the lamp on the terminal adapter according to the presence or absence of incoming e-mails in the mail server at the time of confirmation However, effective confirmation of incoming e-mails is always possible.

In the system according to the present invention, information (mail server name, mail address and mail password) necessary for inquiring of the mail server whether or not an electronic mail has been received includes a circuit switching connection request (call setting message). ) Is set in the subaddress information element.
When the sub-address is used, each of the destination sub-address and the source sub-address can transmit information of up to 20 bytes, that is, information of up to 40 bytes in total.
However, it is also possible to set other information elements in the call setup message.

Unlike the user / user information used in the prior art confirmation system, the use of the subaddress does not require a prior application to the carrier.
With the system according to the present invention, while keeping the load on the communication line and the access point to the Internet service provider to a minimum, the user can turn on the lamp of the terminal adapter TA2 and send an e-mail addressed to him / her. If so, you can make an Internet connection to your normal access point and read your incoming e-mail. Therefore, unlike the related art, it is not necessary to make an Internet connection in order to confirm the arrival of an e-mail many times in one day, and it is sufficient to receive the e-mail only when the arrival of the e-mail is actually confirmed. . This eliminates the need for the user of the e-mail to check the e-mail with the time and effort that would be wasted as a result.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 illustrates an outline of a conventional e-mail arrival check method.

FIG. 2 illustrates an outline of an electronic mail arrival confirmation method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates the processing sequence of the electronic mail arrival notification system according to the present invention between the terminal adapter TA2, the circuit-switched ISDN network, and the dedicated server when there is an incoming electronic mail.

FIG. 4 illustrates the processing sequence of the electronic mail arrival confirmation system according to the present invention between the terminal adapter TA2, the circuit-switched ISDN network and the dedicated server when there is no incoming electronic mail.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-11-331240 (JP, A) JP-A-10-222447 (JP, A) JP-A-9-198327 (JP, A) JP-A-2000-216909 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 11/00-11/10 H04M 3/42-3/58

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electronic mail arrival notification system, comprising: interface means disposed between an electronic mail receiving device used by a user and a circuit-switched ISDN network; A dedicated access point for confirming incoming e-mail, including a dedicated server for confirming incoming mail; and an incoming e-mail notifying means provided in the interface means. By calling the access point with information on the user included in a call setup message, the dedicated server is inquired about whether or not an e-mail addressed to the user has arrived. At a predetermined time interval, the dedicated server, if there is an incoming e-mail, After sending the outgoing message, if there is no incoming e-mail, the calling message is not sent, the line is disconnected without responding to the incoming call from the interface means, and if the calling message is sent, The interface means determines that there is an incoming e-mail addressed to the user, and activates the incoming e-mail notification means to notify the user of the incoming e-mail. Email incoming notification system. 2. The electronic mail arrival notification system according to claim 1, wherein the information on the user is included in a subaddress in the call setting message.