JPH0646086A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To use a communication line efficiently by retrieving an address corresponding to a 2nd destination address and outputting a message from a terminal equipment thereto. CONSTITUTION:A destination address inputted as a 1st setting address is analyzed and when the inputted destination address is not coincident with the 1st setting address, whether or not the destination address is correct is inquired of a name server 14. The name server 14 storing 2nd setting addresses set to message servers provided in the electronic mail system analyzes addresses. Then the name server 14 compares the destination address received from a message server A12 with the 2nd destination address stored in advance to check whether or not the address is the correct destination address. Then the name server 14 informs the result of analysis to the message server A12 as an acknowledge 107 and when the destination address is analyzed to be correct, the message server A12 registers the destination address.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system for delivering a message to a delivery destination via a communication line, and particularly to an electronic mail system capable of preventing the above message from being delivered by mistake.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a conventional electronic mail service is
The storage processing function of the host computer (server) is used without direct communication between terminals. A distributed electronic mail system including a plurality of servers transfers a message output from a sender between the servers. Then, the transferred message is finally delivered to the server to which the terminal of the recipient belongs and is temporarily stored. The recipient can arbitrarily access the terminal and retrieve the message addressed to himself / herself.

Messages transmitted one after another between servers via communication lines in the system include a destination address,
Control information such as a copy destination and a subject, and information corresponding to the text to be sent by the user are described. Message origination / forwarding / delivery is processed based on this control information.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show "network business".
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram and a message processing flowchart of a conventional electronic mail system as shown in (ASCII Co., 1986, magazine 63595-04), in which 1 is a user terminal A that is a sender of a message, The user uses the user terminal A to create a message and send a message. 2 and 5 are the message server A and the message server B. The message server A2 and the message server B5 hold the address information of the terminals managed by the message servers A2 and B5, and relay and exchange the messages. 3 is the message server A
Network 4 connecting 2 and the message server B5 has registered correspondence information between the message destination address and the message server address, etc., and the inquiry from the message server causes the former address to the latter address. A name server that provides a translation function. A system without such a name server 4 and each message server having the above information is possible, but in a large-scale network, the name server 4 is often used to facilitate the management and maintenance of the information. A user terminal B 6 is a destination of the message. In FIG. 6, steps 100 to 116 represent respective steps in executing message creation and transmission by the user terminal A1 and the message server A2, which will be described later in the order of execution. Here, the same numbers are given to the steps having the same processing content. When information such as a message is transferred between a terminal or a message server in steps 100 to 116 of FIG. 6, the same number is used between the information transmission source and the information reception destination in FIG. It is connected by an arrow with.

Message transmission may be remote transmission in which the destination user terminal belongs to another message server connected via the network 3 or local transmission in which the destination user terminal belongs to the same message server as the destination user.

In transmitting a message by the electronic mail system, the user first creates a message to be transmitted at the user terminal A1. There, the destination address is first designated (step 100) and then the message body is created (step 10).
4). When the user terminal A1 finishes creating the message body, it sends a message to the message server A2 to which the user terminal A1 belongs (step 110). After receiving the message, the message server A2 analyzes the destination address (step 115). In this step 115, it is analyzed whether the transmission is local or remote. In the case of local transmission, the message is delivered to the user terminal C (step 112), and the user terminal C receives the delivered message (step 113). For remote transmission, the message is transferred via the network 3 to the message server B5 to which the destination user terminal B6 belongs (step 111). The name server 4 is used in step 111 to obtain the address of the message server B5 from the destination address. Then, the message is delivered from the message server B5 to the destination user (step 112), and the user terminal B6 receives the delivered message (step 113). By the way, in the conventional electronic mail system, even if the input destination address is incorrect, the message is close to the incorrect address in the message server B.
No. 5 has been transferred (step 111). Then, the message server close to the incorrect address detects the error (step 106), and returns the message having the incorrect address to the user terminal A1 which is the receiver and notifies it (step 116). The notification error user terminal A1 corrects the destination address correctly (step 109) and sends the message again (step 110).

In the above electronic mail system, when the user terminal A1 sends a message to the wrong destination address to the network 3, the message having the wrong destination address is transferred onto the network, causing unnecessary traffic. was there.

[0008] As a solution to such a problem, Kohei Hei 3-
An electronic mail processing device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 261251 has been proposed. In this electronic mail processing device, every time a delivery destination is erroneously sent, the delivery destination is registered in the regulation table of the message server. When the message server enters the delivery destination, it searches the restriction table, and if the delivery destination is registered in the restriction table, it determines that there is an error in the delivery destination, does not deliver to the delivery destination, and sends it to the sender. Report an error. This e-mail processing device inputs an incorrect delivery destination, and when the delivery destination is not registered in the restriction table, the message is delivered to the incorrect delivery destination, resulting in unnecessary traffic and the user being reported. The length of the spot time until it was not improved.

[0009]

In the conventional electronic mail system, when a user terminal sends a message having an incorrect destination address to a delivery destination in the network, the message server to which the user terminal belongs receives the incorrect destination address. If the destination address is not registered in the restriction table, the above message is transmitted in the network, which causes a problem that unnecessary traffic occurs in the network. The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and an object thereof is to prevent erroneous delivery due to an erroneous address in an electronic mail system and reduce mail traffic in a network.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An electronic mail system according to the present invention is a message server to which a first destination address for identifying a terminal device to which a message is delivered and a terminal device to which the message is delivered are connected. And a second destination address for identifying the first destination address, and a third step of searching a preset first set address corresponding to the first destination address, and a preset step. Outputting a message based on the search results of the fourth step of searching the one corresponding to the above-mentioned second destination address from the set second settings, and the search of the third step and the fourth step Is. Further, a sixth step is provided in which the search result of the third step or the fourth step is input and the message is not output unless the search result is input. Further, from the search result of the third step, if the first destination address does not correspond to the preset first set address, from the preset first set address, A seventh step of selecting an address similar to the first destination address and an eighth step of correcting the destination address based on the selected similar address are provided. Furthermore, from the search result of the fourth step, if the second destination address does not correspond to the second preset address set in the preset second set addresses, From the above, there is provided a ninth step of selecting an address similar to the second destination address and a tenth step of correcting the destination address based on the selected similar address.

[0011]

In the present invention, the first destination address and the second destination address are input, and the preset first address is input.
From among the setting addresses of the above, the one corresponding to the first destination address is searched, and the one corresponding to the second destination address is searched from among the preset second setting addresses. A message from the terminal device is output to the destination based on the search result. Also, if the search result of the third step or the fourth step is input and the search result is not input, no message is output. In addition, the third
If the first destination address does not correspond to the preset first set address from the search result of the step, the first destination is selected from the preset first set addresses. An address similar to the destination address is selected, and the destination address is corrected based on the selected similar address. Furthermore, from the search result of the fourth step, if the second destination address does not correspond to the second preset address set in the preset second set addresses, An address similar to the second destination address is selected from and the destination address is corrected based on the selected similar address.

[0012]

EXAMPLES Example 1. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of an electronic mail system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flow chart of message processing. In FIG. 1, the message server A12 determines that the destination address is correct if it is included in the addresses held by the input destination address. If the destination address is not in it and is remote, the message server A 12 makes an inquiry to the name server 14. In FIG. 2, steps 101 to 114 represent respective steps in which the user terminal, the message server, and the name server execute message creation and transmission destination address registration, which will be described later in the order of execution. . Here, the same numbers are given to the steps having the same processing content. Note that each step 1 in FIG.
When information such as a message is transferred between the terminal, the message server, and the name server in 01 to 114, the location of the information transfer is represented by the arrow with the same number in FIG. 1 corresponding to this. . A user terminal that uses this e-mail system must register a subscriber ID and password, and the user can send an arbitrary message to any user by inputting the subscriber ID and password. can do.
Therefore, the name server 4 stores all the destination addresses of the users who use this electronic mail system.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. Example 1. When the user terminal A10 sends a message, the destination address of the user terminal B16, which is the delivery destination of the message, is designated (step 101). Then, the user terminal A10 outputs the designated destination address to the message server A12 and creates a message to be transmitted (step 104). In the message server A12, when the destination address is input from the user terminal A10, the destination address analysis operation is performed. It is started (step 102). In this step 102, the destination address is input, and the destination address input from the first set addresses preset for each user terminal provided in the electronic mail system is analyzed. If the input destination address does not match the first set address, the name server 14 is inquired whether the destination address is correct (step 103). The name server 14 performs address analysis including steps 105 and 106. The name server 14 stores a second set address preset for each message server provided in the electronic mail system. Then, in steps 105 and 106, the destination address input from the message server A12 is compared with the second destination address that is set and stored in advance to check whether or not the destination is correct. The name server 14 notifies the message server A12 of this analysis result as a response 107. Message server A if the destination address is correct
12 registers this destination address (step 11)
4). In this way, the destination address stored in the message server A12 is sequentially increased. Therefore, the search efficiency in the message server A12 is also improved. If there is an error, the message server A12 notifies the user terminal A10 of the error (step 108). At this point, the user terminal A10
Is composing a message. Caller user terminal A10
Can see this response immediately and can quickly correct the wrong destination address (step 109) so that the message can be sent correctly. The sent message is transferred to a terminal for local transmission as in a conventional electronic mail system, and is transferred to a message server B15 to which a destination user belongs via a network for remote transmission, and the user who is a recipient receives the message. It is delivered to the terminal 16. The operations of steps 110 to 113 are the same as those of the conventional example described in FIG. From the above, the response to the user when a message having an incorrect destination address is created becomes faster, and the operability of electronic mail is improved. Moreover, since the number of messages having an erroneous destination address is reduced, unnecessary traffic can be reduced.

Example 2. In the above-described first embodiment, it is assumed that the name server 14 is provided, but an e-mail system without the name server 14 that each message server 12, 15 has a function of analyzing whether or not the input destination address is correct. It is possible.

Example 3. In the first embodiment, the address is registered after it is received from the name server 14 that the destination address is correct, but it is also possible to register the address at another timing. For example,
It is possible to register the sender address of the received message.

Example 4. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of another embodiment of the electronic mail system. The system configuration diagram of this embodiment is similar to that of FIG. This FIG. 3 is obtained by adding the process (step 117) of confirming the response of the destination address analysis result to FIG. The other steps 101 to 114 operate in the same manner as in FIG. Next, FIG.
The operation will be described with reference to.

When the user 1 specifies the destination address,
First, check if this destination address was previously used and registered. If not registered, the name server 4 is inquired to analyze whether the destination address is correct. In the first embodiment, the user is notified (step 108) only when the analysis result is incorrect. However, the user is also notified here when the analysis result is correct and the destination address is already registered. After confirming this response (step 117), the user terminal 1 sends a message. The first embodiment is characterized in that when the destination address is incorrect, the user is notified while the message is being created. However, in message transmission when the message body is created in advance such as file transfer, the message creation ( Since there is no step 104), the notification to the user cannot be made in time, and the message may be sent to the wrong address. Therefore, by adding this step 117,
Since the user terminal 1 does not send the message until it confirms the response that the destination address is correct, the message is not sent to the wrong destination address, and unnecessary traffic can be reliably reduced.

Example 5. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of another embodiment of the electronic mail system. The system configuration diagram of this embodiment is similar to that of FIG. In FIG. 4, when the same address as the designated destination address is not found, a process (step 118) of searching for an address similar to this is added to FIG. The other steps 101 to 114 operate in the same manner as in FIG. Next, FIG.
The operation will be described with reference to.

When the user 1 specifies the destination address,
First, check if this destination address was previously used and registered. If not registered, the name server 4 is inquired to analyze whether the destination address is correct. If the same address as the destination address is not found here (step 120), an address similar to this address is searched (step 118) and the search result list is displayed (step 119). In the first and second embodiments, only the error in the analysis result is notified to the user, but the search result list is also displayed here. User 1 corrects the destination address while referring to this search result list (step 11).
9) Therefore, if there is an error in the designated destination address, the address can be corrected without fail.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, erroneous delivery can be prevented and mail traffic can be reduced based on the above configuration, so that the communication line can be used efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an electronic mail system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing message processing according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing message processing of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing message processing of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional electronic mail system.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of conventional message processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 User Terminal A 12 Message Server A 13 Network 14 Name Server 15 Message Server B 16 User Terminal B 101 Destination Address Input 103 Address Inquiry 107 Response 108 Notification to User Terminal A 114 Destination Address Registration

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electronic mail system in which a plurality of message servers to which a terminal device is connected are connected by a communication line to deliver a message to a delivery destination designated by the terminal, wherein a message from the terminal is input. And a first destination address for identifying the terminal device of the message delivery destination and a second destination address for identifying the message server to which the message delivery destination terminal device is connected. The second step of inputting, and inputting the first destination address, and searching for the first setting address preset for each message server that corresponds to the first destination address. And the second destination address, and the second setting address preset for the plurality of terminal devices is input. In the fourth step of searching for the address corresponding to the second destination address from among the above, and in the search results of the third step and the fourth step, the destination address is specified in at least one step. An electronic mail system comprising: a fifth step of outputting the message input in the first step to a delivery destination if a corresponding one can be retrieved. 2. The sixth step of controlling the fifth step so as not to output the message to the delivery destination unless the search result of the third step or the fourth step is inputted and the search result is not inputted. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. The preset first set address when the first destination address does not correspond to the preset first set address from the search result of the third step. Among them, a seventh step of selecting an address similar to the first destination address and an eighth step of correcting the destination address to the selected similar address are provided. Claim 1
E-mail system described in section. 4. The preset second set address when the second destination address does not correspond to the preset second set address from the search result of the fourth step. A ninth step of selecting an address similar to the second destination address from among the above, and a tenth step of correcting the destination address to the selected similar address. The electronic mail system according to claim 1.