KR20020020928A - Sender mailbox management and original mail reading method under the downmail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for managing a transmission-side mail box and reading an original mail in a down mail system is provided to secure the convenience of a mail user by deleting mails neglected at a long time, and clicking an access information region and reading the original mail as a web mail type. CONSTITUTION: Mail transmission is notified using a transmission notification mail(301) including a header(302), an access information region(303), a help site(304), and an extracted mail content(305). A receiver receives the transmission notification mail(301), clicks the access information region(303) displayed as a web site type, and automatically receives an original mail on a web browser window by a CGI(Common Gateway Interface) communication procedure on an HTTP.

Description

Sender mailbox management and original mail reading method under the downmail system}

The present invention relates to a method in which a sender manages his or her mail mailbox in a down-mail manner, and the recipient can read the original mail in the form of a web mail by clicking an access information area in the sending notification mail.

1 shows a conventional mail delivery method. Looking at the mail delivery system as a whole, a sender who creates a mail using a personal computer connected to the wired / wireless network and sends it to the sender's mail server, and a sender's mail server that receives the mail requested by the sender to send it to the receiver's mail server. It consists of a receiving mail server that receives mail from the sending mail server, stores it in the receiving mail mailbox, and finally delivers the mail to the recipient when the recipient requests it, and a recipient receiving the mail from the receiving mail server. The sender forwards the mail to the sender's mail server, and the sender's mail server delivers the mail to the receiver's mail server by a standardized communication procedure called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). The reading of e-mail is performed by standardized communication procedures such as Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) or Post Office Protocol (POP) 3. Such a conventional mail system is generally implemented by three types of programs: a user agent (UA), a message transfer agent (MTA), and a receiving mail mailbox manager. UA is a program that allows users to compose and send mail or receive mails from the receiving mailbox, and many products such as Microsoft Outlook are used. The MTA is a program that delivers the actual mail to the destination mail server. Sendmail is mainly used. Receiving mail mailbox manager is a program that sends mail in receiving mail mailbox to recipients upon request of receiver. Products such as IMAP server or POP3 server program are widely used. Recently, a lot of web mails integrating a mail server and a web server have been widely used. In the case of such web mail, a sender sends a mail through an interface called CGI (Common Gateway Interface) over HTTP, which is a web protocol instead of the conventional SMTP communication procedure. Is transmitted to the sender's mail server, and instead of the standardized communication procedure such as IMAP or POP3, the receiver receives his mail from the receiver's mail server through an interface called CGI over HTTP.

Figure 2 shows the overall configuration of the conventional downmail method. As a whole, it is composed of a conventional mail area and a downmail area, and a mail interlocking device 200 which interconnects the two areas. First, look at the functional blocks mounted in each device as follows.

* MTA (Message Transfer Agent): A message transfer agent that is responsible for the communication of mail is used in the conventional mail area MTA (215), used in the down-mail area and the mail interlocking device 200 is called MTA_n (205)

* UA (User Agent): As a user agent, it is installed in a personal computer or a portable terminal connected to a wired / wireless network to help a sender (201, 211) and a receiver (204, 214).

* RMB (Recipient MailBox) 207: Receiving Mail Mailbox that stores mail arriving at the receiving party

SMB (Sender MailBox) 209: Sending mail mailbox for storing original mails of senders 201 and 211. In this case, the original mail means a mail whose length of the mail body is longer than a predetermined length among the mails sent by the sender 201 and 211 to the receiver 204 and 214.

* Recipient MailBox Manager (RMM) 206: Recipient Mail Mailbox Manager managing RMB 207

* Sender Mail Box Manager (SMM) 208: Sender Mail Mailbox Manager managing SMB 209

The conventional mail area includes a sender 211 which composes a mail in a device equipped with a UA and sends it to the sender mail server 212; A sender mail server 212 which receives the mail requested by the sender 211 to send and sends the mail to the receiver mail server 213; A receiving mail server 213 which receives the mail from the sending mail server 212 and stores the mail in the RMB 207 and forwards the mail to the receiving 214 upon request of the recipient 214; And a receiver 214 for receiving mail from the receiving mail server 213. The sending mail server 212 is composed of only the MTA 215, but the receiving mail server 213 is equipped with an MTA 215, an RMM 206, and an RMB 207.

The down-mail area includes a sender 201 which composes a mail in a device equipped with a UA and sends it to the sender down-mail server 202; The sender 201 receives the mail requested to be created and sent, stores it in the SMB 209, and sends a sending notification mail to the receiving side down mail server 203, and the original stored in the SMB 209 at the request of the recipient 204. A sending side down mail server 202 for sending a mail to a recipient 204; A receiving side down mail server 203 which receives the sending notification mail from the sending side down mail server 202 and stores it in the RMB 207 and delivers the sending notification mail to the receiver 204 upon request of the recipient 204; And a receiver 204 which receives the sending notification mail from the receiving mail server 203 and downloads the original mail stored in the SMB 209 of the sending mail server 202 by its own selection. do. The down-mail server delivers outgoing outgoing mail in response to a request from the MTA_n 205, which adds down-mail and mail interworking functions to the conventional MTA, an RMB 207 storing the received outgoing mail, and a recipient 204. RMM 206, SMB 209 for storing the original mail sent by the sender 201, and SMM 208 for receiving the original mail stored in the SMB 209 to the recipient in response to the request do.

The mail interlocking device 200 receives and stores original mails sent from the MTA_n 205, which adds down mail and mail interworking functions to the conventional MTA, and the sender 211 of the conventional mail area to the recipient 204 of the down mail area. SMB 209 and the recipient 204 is characterized in that the SMM 208 to send the original mail stored in the SMB 209 to the recipient. The MTA_n 205, SMB 209, and SMM 208 mounted on the down-mail servers 202 and 203 and the mail interlock device 200 are all designed in the same manner and have flexibility in device configuration.

In FIG. 2, the communication procedure between each component uses the same standardized communication procedure as the conventional electronic mail system. Sender 211, 201 sends mail to sender mail server 212 or sender downmail server 202 and MTA 215 or MTA_n 205 mounted in mail server 212,213, 202,203 and mail interlocking device 200. Mail communication between them uses SMTP. Recipients 214 and 204 receive mail or outgoing notification mail from the RMM 206 in the receiving mail server 213 or the receiving down mail server 203, and the recipients 214 and 204 send or receive the mail interlocking device 200 or send. Receiving the mail source from the SMM 208 at the side downmail server 202 uses IMAP or POP3. On the other hand, in the case of the web mail which is widely spread in recent years, when the senders 211 and 201 send mail to the sender mail server 212 or the sender downmail server 202, and the receivers 204 and 214 receive the mail server 203. Or CGI over HTTP, which is a web protocol, is used instead of the conventional communication procedure when receiving its own mail from the RMM 206 in the receiving mail server 213.

In the conventional downmail method, there is no effective way for the sender 204 to delete garbage mails accumulated in his or her SMB 209, that is, original mails that have been left unattended for a long time because the receiver has not read them. Since 200 or the SMM 208 of the down-mail servers 202 and 203 does not provide a method of reading the original mail by the CGI procedure based web mail method on HTTP, there is a problem that inconveniences in using the mail are caused.

Accordingly, in order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a method in which a sender can delete a mail that has been left unattended for a long time because the receiver does not read it in his or her mail box, that is, a sender notice in a down mail system. The purpose of this method is to add a method of reading the original mail in the form of web mail by clicking the access information area in the mail so that it becomes a more convenient mail method.

1 is a conceptual diagram of mail communication in a conventional mail system

2 is an overall configuration diagram of a conventional down-mail method

Figure 3 Format of sending notification mail

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The overall configuration diagram of the down-mail method according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention is the same as that of FIG. 2, which is the overall configuration of the conventional down-mail method, but the recipients 214 and 204 are the mail interlocking device 200 or the transmission-side down mail. When receiving the mail source from the SMM 208 in the server 202 has a feature of using a standardized communication procedure, that is, the interface of CGI over HTTP, a web protocol, in addition to IMAP and POP3, the mail interlock device 200 And SMB 209 management functions and web mail related functions are added to the SMM 208 of the down mail servers 202 and 203.

Figure 3 shows the configuration of the sending notification mail 301 in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as in the conventional mail is composed of a header 302 and the body, the body access information including a mail server ID, user ID and password 303, help site 304, and extracted mail content 305 area. The header 302 is identical to the header of the original mail but is prefixed with a prefix for sending notification, for example, "No:". The user ID and password are for authenticating the recipient who wants to receive the original mail, that is, the user, and allowing the SMB 209 to quickly find the desired original mail. The user ID is composed of "/ sender ID / receiver ID / mail number /" which is the remainder of deleting the sender's mailbox part from the directory path of the original mail stored in the SMB 209, and the password is ASCII characters. It is composed. The mail server ID is an Internet address indicated by a domain name or a character string of the down mail servers 202 and 203 or the mail interlocking device 200 on which the SMM 208 which manages the SMB 209 is mounted. The access information area 303 is configured using HTTP and CGI syntax to allow the recipients 204 and 214 to receive the original mail in the form of web mail. When the recipient (204, 214) reads outgoing notification mail, the access information field appears as a website name that implies the meaning of the original mail, such as "original mail." The SMM 208 program of the server corresponding to the mail server ID in the information area 303 is started. The SMM 208 authenticates the user with the user ID and password in the access information area 303 received through the CGI procedure, and then forwards the corresponding original mail to appear on the recipient's web browser. The help site 304 is a plugin that provides help for the delivery notification mail 301 or automatically retrieves the original mail from the delivery notification mail 301, or a website informing about a new UA version. 301) to help users who do not know well. When it is time for all users to understand the meaning of the dispatch notification mail 301, the help site area can be removed. The extracted mail content (305) area is an area that extracts some random text in the original mail body and does not exceed the maximum body length of the signal mail. To give. The size of the body is set to 100 bytes, which can be adjusted later.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the SMM 208 mounted on the down-mail servers 202 and 203 and the mail interlocking device 200 has an original mail-down function and a sender 204 to deliver the original mail upon request of the recipients 214 and 204. It has three functions, the SMB 209 management function operated by request and its own SMB 209 management function.

The original mail down function of the SMM 208 performs a function similar to that of the conventional RMM 206, which can be configured in two ways in terms of communication protocol with the UA. The first method is a classic original mail download method using protocols such as POP3 and IMAP. The second method is a web mail based original mail download method using CGI over HTTP.

The classic original mail downloader looks like this: When the original mail request is received from the receiver, the receiver receives the user ID and password, and checks whether a directory corresponding to the user ID exists and matches the password stored in the directory to authenticate the recipient. If the authentication passes, the original mail is sent to the recipient in the directory corresponding to the user ID. After sending the original mail, the original mail is not deleted or deleted when the recipient deletes the original mail. Then, a recipient notice mail is sent to the sender, indicating that the recipient has received the mail. Deleting the original mail in the SMM 208 may or may not delete when the recipient requests the original mail to be deleted after receiving the original mail. For example, in case of an advertisement mail sent to a large number of recipients, an extra mailbox space is required to store separate original mails for each recipient, so only one original mail is kept and the original mail is received by multiple recipients. However, care should be taken because the recipient may deny receipt of the original mail by considering the mail server having the SMM 208 as a spam mailer.

In the web mail-based original mail download method, the original mail delivery function of the SMM 208 is the same as the classic original mail download method. However, instead of classic communication procedures such as POP3 or IMAP, CGI over HTTP delivers the original mail to the recipient so that the original mail appears in the web browser.

The SMB 209 management function of the SMM 208 operated at the request of the sender 204 can also be configured in two ways in terms of communication protocol with the UA. The first method is the classic method using protocols such as POP3 and IMAP. The second method is web mail using CGI over HTTP. When the sender 201 accesses the SMM 208 by POP3 or IMAP, the classic SMB 209 management function of the SMM 208 operates, the specific operation procedure is as follows; When the sender clicks the SMB management menu in UA, SMM informs the recipient, subject, and date and time of sending by mail for all mails of the sender. Then, the sender selects the mail to delete and clicks the delete button, and the original mail is deleted from the SMB. In general, from the standpoint of the sender, if the mail server that sends mail is identical to the SMM server, which is a mail server equipped with SMM, but not the same, the SMM server is registered in the UA. Click to add a procedure to log on to the SMM server.

When the sender 201 accesses the SMM 208 via CGI over HTTP, the SMB 209 management function of the webmail-based SMM 208 operates, and the specific operation procedure is as follows; First, if necessary, the certification process is performed. If the authentication passes, the SMB management menu is provided. When the sender clicks on it, the mailbox space status, original mail management, and other submenus are provided. Click the Mailbox Space Status submenu to display information on the allocated mailbox space, the space used, and the remaining space. If you click the original mail management submenu, detailed menus such as list view, detail view, temporary deletion, deletion by mail, recipient group deletion, and individual mail deletion are provided. Clicking on the list view will tell you the recipients, subjects, and date and time of each message for all the senders. Click on the detail view or double-click on the message to display the contents of that message. Temporarily delete allows you to delete messages belonging to a specific date and time or a specific date and time range, delete by mail allows you to delete all the specific messages sent to multiple recipients, and delete by recipient group by specific group of recipients. Delete mail, and delete individual mail allows you to delete specific mail sent to specific recipients. Here, in the case of deleting individual mails, only one mail is deleted at a time, but in the mail-by-mail deletion, a plurality of mails may be deleted in the case of multiple recipients.

On the other hand, the SMM 208 of the down mail servers 202 and 203 and the mail interlocking device 200 performs its own SMB 209 management functions, by examining the use of each sender's mail mailbox, available space, old original mail, and the like. Mail mailbox management functions such as notifying the sender of the result by e-mail, deleting old original mail and sending it to the sender by e-mail if necessary. In the case of the SMM 208 of the mail interlocking device 200, it may additionally have an SMB 209 management function such as checking the use of available mail mailboxes, available space, old original mail, etc. and performing the corresponding processing. have.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mail receiving processing of the recipients 204 and 214 is as follows; After receiving the sending notification mail 301 from the computer equipped with UA, it is decided whether to receive the original mail. The original mail is determined by determining whether the mail is intended to be received with information such as header information, mail server ID, and extracted mail contents of the sending notification mail 301. Receiving the original mail is performed by the same communication procedure as receiving the sending notification mail 301, but the other party's server, user ID and password for sending the mail are different.

There are two ways to receive the original mail, the classical method using protocols such as POP3 and IMAP, and the web mail method using CGI protocol over HTTP. In the classical method, when receiving the original mail manually, the domain name of the sender's down-mail server 202 or the mail interlocking device 200 equipped with the SMM 208 that manages the stored original mail from the sending notification mail 301. After obtaining the user's ID and password required for authentication in the SMM (208), and then access the SMM (208) of the sender-down mail server or the mail interlocking device 200 to receive the original mail, the first The user may be embarrassed. In this case, you can get help by clicking on the help site, or download a plug-in or upgraded UA that automatically receives the original mail, and receive the original mail automatically. If you use the plug-in or upgraded UA to automatically receive the original mail, when the user clicks the View original mail button, the mail notification server automatically obtains the mail server ID, user ID and password from the sending notification mail (301), and receives the original mail. Shows. In the case of the web mail method, by clicking on the access information area 303 in the contents of the sending notification mail 301, the CGI program corresponding to the SMM 208 of the mail server can be automatically received.

When the recipient receives the original mail and requests the other server's SMM 208 to delete the original mail, it may be principled or not deleted in the SMM 208. When the recipient receives the original mail and receives the original mail once more, if the same original mail is read as the previously received original mail, the mail server may be a mail server sending spam mail. You can protect yourself by considering this large server and registering it on the list of spam filters.

The present invention deletes mail that has been left unattended for a long time because the sender does not read in the sender's mail box in the down mail method, which can eliminate the dysfunction of Internet mail and block spam mails. It is possible to provide a method that can be used, and by adding a method of reading the original mail in the form of a web mail by clicking the access information area in the sending notification mail, the mail can be more convenient to use.

In addition, the above description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description only. The invention is not limited to the form shown, and many variations and modifications are possible in light of the principles of the invention described above. The described embodiments are selected to best describe the principles and substantive provisions of the present invention in order that those skilled in the art may use the invention in various embodiments and as appropriate to the specific application desired. It is intended that the scope of the invention only be limited by the appended claims below.

Claims (3)

In the downmail method, A method of notifying a mail sending by a sending notification mail 301 including a header 302, an access information area 303, a help site 304, and an extracted mail content 305, and a recipient who has received the sending notification mail ( Clicking the access information area 303 in which the 204, 214 is displayed in the form of a website automatically receives the original mail on the web browser screen by the CGI communication procedure on the HTTP. In the downmail method, Original mail down function that delivers original mail by conventional communication procedure such as POP3 or IMAP at the request of the recipient; or original mail download function by CGI communication procedure over HTTP; and conventional communication procedure such as POP3 or IMAP by the sender's request. Selectively delete the original mail stored in SMB 209 or check mailbox space by CGI communication procedure on HTTP, view archived mail, delete temporary mail, delete mail by recipient group, delete mail by email, delete individual mail SMM 208 with SMB 209 management functions In the downmail method, Accessing the SMM 208 through the SMB 209 management menu, and checking a recipient, a subject, and a date and time for each mail for all his / her messages stored in the SMB 209; Selecting the mail to be deleted and clicking the delete button to delete the original mail from the SMB 209; And if the mail server for sending mail and the SMM 208 server are not the same, the SMM server is registered, and when the sender clicks the SMB management menu, the sender 204 having a function of logging on to the SMM server is performed. UA