JP4186964B2 - Internet facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an Internet facsimile machine, and more particularly to processing at the time of archiving.

  In Internet facsimile machines, it is known to store transmitted / received image data in an external memory or a document management server as an archive. For example, Patent Document 1 proposes that the contents of transmitted / received image data be reflected in the subject field of an e-mail transmitted to an archive destination.

Here, the inventor noticed that the received e-mail is lost if a trouble occurs in the memory of the Internet facsimile machine before the received e-mail is successfully archived. That is, the Internet facsimile machine receives an electronic mail from a mail server as a POP server, and upon completion of the reception, requests the deletion of the corresponding electronic mail and terminates the connection with the mail server. Here, before the archiving succeeds, trouble occurs in the memory of the Internet facsimile machine, and if the received e-mail file is damaged, the e-mail is lost. There are cases where the received electronic mail cannot be archived.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-40600

An object of the present invention is to make the archiving 100% successful using a post office protocol (POP).
An additional problem with the present invention is to prevent a user from accessing incoming email that has not been archived.
An additional problem in the invention of claim 2 is that the session is terminated in a state in which the e-mail that could not be archived can be reacquired from the POP server, the memory of the Internet facsimile machine is prevented from overflowing, and further archived. It is intended to prevent the user from accessing the unsolicited e-mail via the memory.
An additional problem in the invention of claim 3 is to end the session with the POP server in a relatively short time when the archiving fails.

According to the present invention, in an Internet facsimile apparatus that receives an Internet facsimile as an electronic mail from a POP server and archives the electronic mail, a confirmation means for confirming the success of archiving, and deleting the electronic mail in the POP server A deletion means for sending a DELE command and a QUIT command to the POP server so as to be executed after the confirmation is provided. Further, the electronic mail is not printed and transferred to a destination other than the archive destination until the success of the archive is confirmed.

Preferably, a memory for temporarily storing the e-mail and a retry means for retrying when archiving fails, and if the success of archiving cannot be confirmed after a predetermined number of retries, from the POP server End the session without deleting the e-mail and delete the e-mail from the memory.

  Preferably, if the success of archiving cannot be confirmed, the ID of the e-mail acquired from the POP server is stored, the session with the POP server is terminated, the archive is retried, and the archiving succeeds with the retry, and When the session with the POP server is resumed, the electronic mail is specified by the stored ID, and the deletion is requested to the POP server.

  In the present invention, the post office protocol (POP) is used, and after confirming that archiving is successful, the POP server deletes the e-mail. For this reason, 100% archiving can be successful.

In the present invention , the received e-mail is not printed or transferred to the client until the archiving is successful, so that the user does not access the unarchived received e-mail.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, when archiving fails even after retrying, the received e-mail is deleted from the temporary storage memory of the Internet facsimile machine, so that this memory overflows or the received e-mail is not archived. The user does not access through the memory. Further, since the session with the POP server is terminated in a state where the email that could not be archived can be reacquired, it is possible to try to acquire the email again in the next session and perform normal processing.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, even if an e-mail that could not be archived is generated, the session is completed by storing the ID of the corresponding e-mail at the POP server, so that the session can be completed in a relatively short time. If the archiving succeeds after the session ends, the e-mail can be deleted with the stored ID when the session is restarted next time.

  In the following, an optimum embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be shown.

  1 to 5 show an Internet facsimile machine 2 of the embodiment and its modification. 4 is a LAN, 6 is a mail server, which has, for example, an SMTP server function and a POP3 server function, and 8 is a gateway that connects to the Internet 10. A document management server 12 is used for storing e-mails to be archived, for example, and a client 14 is a personal computer.

  The main control unit 20 is the uppermost control unit of the Internet facsimile machine 2, 22 is a scanner, reads a document, generates image data, and the printer 24 prints the image data. The G3 facsimile 26 transmits and receives G3 facsimile via a public telephone line (not shown), and the internal memory 28 temporarily stores scanned image data, e-mail to be transmitted and received, and image data waiting for printing. The internal memory 28 stores various work data generated in the Internet facsimile machine 2, and the internal memory 28 is constituted by, for example, a flash ROM or DRAM. The user interface 30 receives user input, and the LAN interface 32 connects the Internet facsimile machine 2 to the LAN 4.

  The archive processing unit 34 archives sent and received e-mails. In the archive, the entire electronic mail may be stored, or only a part of the electronic mail header, body, and image data may be stored, and the storage by the archive is semi-permanent until deletion is instructed. In archiving, e-mail is stored in, for example, the document management server 12, the external memory 29, or an FTP (file transfer protocol) server (not shown), transferred to a remote e-mail server, or transmitted to the archive destination by the G3 facsimile 26 or the like. To do.

  The purpose of archiving is to ensure that important documents such as contracts are stored so that unauthorized use of Internet facsimile machines can be traced. Document management server 12 at the archive destination, external memory 29, FTP server, mail server For example, access to archived e-mail is restricted by password authentication.

  The confirmation means 35 confirms that the archiving is successful. For example, in the case of the document management server 12, an e-mail to be archived is transmitted via the LAN interface 32, and a report indicating that the document management server 12 has successfully saved is received. When archiving to the external memory 29, the e-mail stored in the external memory 29 is read again, for example, and checked with the e-mail temporarily stored in the internal memory 28 to see if they match. When archiving to a remote mail server, it is confirmed that the message has been normally received by the read notification MDN, and the FTP server is also confirmed by a report indicating normal reception. In the case of the G3 facsimile 26, since the G3 facsimile transmission is normally completed, the success of archiving is confirmed.

  The deletion unit 36 causes the mail server 6 to delete the received e-mail after confirming that the archiving is successful by the confirmation unit 35. The request for deletion is to send a DELE command specifying an e-mail to the mail server 6, and the execution of the deletion is to send the QUIT command to the mail server 6 and terminate the session. This is done by deleting the mail. The DELE command can be sent at any time, and the DELE command can be canceled by sending an RSET command to the mail server. The retry unit 37 causes the archive processing unit 34 to retry the archive a predetermined number of times when the archive has failed, that is, when a report or signal indicating that the archive has been successful is not obtained. The predetermined number here may vary depending on the type of archive destination, and if archiving is not possible after a predetermined number of retries, there may be some kind of failure. It is preferable to send a file indicating that archiving was not possible after retrying.

  2 to 4 show the archive processing in the embodiment. The left side of FIGS. 2 and 4 shows processing when the archive is successful, and the right side of FIGS. 3 and 4 shows processing when the archive fails. The Internet facsimile machine receives an e-mail from the mail server 6 through the POP 3. In the reception, the mail server is requested to download the electronic mail, and the mail server transmits the electronic mail of the message. When reception of the e-mail is completed in this way (step 1), if the Internet facsimile apparatus is set to require archiving (step 2), it archives to the designated archive destination (step 3). When a report or signal indicating the success of archiving is received (step 4), for example, the received electronic mail is printed by a printer or transferred to the client (step 5). Next, the mail server is instructed to send a DELE command to delete the received e-mail, and the deletion is executed by the QUIT command. In this way, the archived electronic mail is deleted from the mail server, and the session is terminated (step 6). The DELE command itself may be sent at an arbitrary time after receiving the e-mail and before sending the QUIT command. The electronic mail received from the internal memory of the Internet facsimile machine is deleted (step 7).

  If archive transmission fails in step 4, retry is made until it fails a predetermined number of times (step 8). If archiving is not successful even after retrying a predetermined number of times, steps 5 and 6 are omitted, the received electronic mail is deleted from the memory of the own device (step 7), and the session with the mail server is terminated together therewith, for example. At this time, do not send or cancel the DELE command for the email that failed to be archived so that it can be received in the next session. Also, after acquiring and storing the ID of the e-mail that has failed to be archived at an appropriate time using the UIDL command, the session is terminated using the QUIT command.

  In the embodiment, the e-mail is not deleted from the mail server until it is confirmed that the archiving is successful, so that the archiving can be 100% successful. In addition, the user does not access an e-mail that has not been archived even after retrying (steps 5 and 7). Even in this case, after the data is received again in the next session and the archive is normally performed, it can be printed or transferred to the client.

FIG. 5 shows a process at the time of archiving failure in the modified example, and is the same as the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 4 except for the point indicated in FIG. If archiving fails, the ID of the email server that failed archiving is requested by the UIDL command, the returned ID is stored, and the session is terminated. The UIDL command may be sent at another time such as before the download request at the start of the session. Since the DELE command is not sent to the email that failed to be archived, it is not deleted when it is finished. At this time, processing such as printing of received electronic mail and transfer to a client is executed, but this processing may be omitted. The received e-mail is temporarily stored in the internal memory of the Internet facsimile machine. After the session ends, the archive is retried, and if it fails more than a predetermined number of times, it reports to the administrator's terminal. When archiving is successful, the user logs in to the mail server, designates an e-mail with the stored ID, sends a DELE command, and deletes it with a QUIT command. Alternatively, when the session with the mail server is resumed at an appropriate time after successful archiving, the ID may be specified and deleted.

Block diagram of the Internet facsimile machine of the embodiment The figure which shows the communication sequence with the internet facsimile apparatus and mail server in an Example, and shows the sequence at the time of a successful archiving The communication sequence between the Internet facsimile machine and the mail server in the embodiment is shown, and in particular, the sequence when archiving fails is shown. The flowchart which shows the archive algorithm at the time of reception of the internet facsimile in an Example The communication sequence between the Internet facsimile machine and the mail server in the modified example is shown, and in particular, the sequence when archiving fails is shown.

Explanation of symbols

2 Internet facsimile machine 4 LAN
6 Mail server 8 Gateway 10 Internet 12 Document management server 14 Client 20 Main control unit 22 Scanner 24 Printer 26 G3 facsimile 28 Internal memory 29 External memory 30 User interface 32 LAN interface 34 Archive processing unit
35 checking means 36 deleting means 37 retry means

Claims (3)

In an Internet facsimile apparatus that receives an Internet facsimile as an electronic mail from a POP server and archives the electronic mail,
Confirmation means to confirm the success of the archive,
So as to execute the deletion of e-mail to the POP server after the confirmation, deletion means for delivering the DELE command and QUIT command to the POP server, the city provided Rutotomoni until confirms the success of the archive, the An Internet facsimile machine characterized in that e-mail is not printed or transferred to a destination other than an archive destination . A memory for temporarily storing the e-mail and a retry means for retrying when archiving fails, and if the success of archiving cannot be confirmed after a predetermined number of retries, the e-mail is sent from the POP server. 2. The Internet facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the session is terminated without being deleted, and the electronic mail is deleted from the memory. If the success of archiving cannot be confirmed, the ID of the e-mail acquired from the POP server is stored, the session with the POP server is terminated, and the archive is retried.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein when the archiving is successful by retry and the session with the POP server is resumed, the electronic mail is specified by the stored ID and a deletion is requested to the POP server . Internet facsimile machine.

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