JPH11168496A - Absence reporting method for storage type mail system, transfer method for the same system and mail receiving method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an absence reporting method for storage type mail system, a transfer method for the same system and a mail receiving method with which it can be judged for processing on the side of a mail server whether or not transmission/reception of an absence notice or automatic transfer is to be performed based on the conditions of absence notice transmission/reception or automatic transfer set by a user. SOLUTION: A personal computer(PC) 4 displays an absence notice setting screen, and when absence notice conditions are set by a user, the set absence notice conditions are transmitted through a communication line to a mail server 3. Then, the mail server 3 stores the above absence notice conditions in a mail box for the user of the PC 4, and when an electronic mail transmitted from the other user is received, absence notice judging processing is performed, based on the above absence notice conditions. After it is judged whether or not the absence notice is to be performed, absence notice issuing processing is executed only when it is judged to perform the absence notice.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of notifying an absence of a storage type mail system for transmitting and receiving electronic mail, a transfer method of the system, and a mail receiving method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the spread of the Internet and the personal computer communication of a commercial network, an e-mail system via a provider (Internet connection business operator), a personal computer communication business, and the like has rapidly spread, and as a communication means. Status has been established. In such an electronic mail system, transmitted data is temporarily stored in a mailbox of a mail server, and then transmitted to a data terminal on the receiving side. Therefore, telephone or fax
Unlike the communication methods such as the above, there is no need for the sender and the receiver to communicate directly, so the sender does not need to worry that the other party is busy, and the receiver reads the received mail when there is enough time It is useful as a flexible means of communication.

[0003] Further, the e-mail system is configured by a news delivery service for automatically transmitting news to a user's e-mail address from a news server when information required by the user is set, and a plurality of users. Various services such as a mailing list that can simultaneously transmit the same mail to all members in a group are provided.

On the other hand, an e-mail system via a provider or the like does not directly communicate between a transmitting side and a receiving side.
If there is no reply mail from the recipient, it is impossible to confirm whether the recipient has actually read the transmitted mail. Therefore, for example, when the recipient cannot receive (read) the mail for a certain period due to a reason such as long absence, the recipient sends the mail that cannot receive (read) the mail. A so-called absence notification service, in which a mail server automatically replies to a sender, or a so-called automatic transfer service, in which mail arriving at a mail server is automatically transmitted to another address set in advance, has been used.

[0005]

However, in the conventional out-of-office service, when the user sets the out-of-office notification, the mail server transmits the out-of-office notification to all the senders of the received mail. I was

[0006] For this reason, the absence notification is also sent to the source of the mail or the like sent from the mail delivery list or news distribution, which does not need to send the absence notification. In some cases, an out-of-office notification would be delivered to all members, resulting in unnecessary traffic. Also, in the conventional automatic transfer service, even mails that do not need to be read immediately are transferred, which is very inconvenient.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a mail server which determines whether to send / receive or automatically transfer an absence notification in accordance with conditions for sending / receiving and automatic transfer of absence notification set by a user. It is an object of the present invention to provide an out-of-office notification method for a storage-type mail system, a transfer method of the system, and a mail reception method.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A storage-type mail system comprising a terminal for transmitting and receiving mail and a mail storage device for storing the mail, wherein the mail sending side of a mail transmitted to a predetermined mail address assigned to the user of the mail system is In the absence notification method of a storage-type mail system that automatically transmits an absence notification indicating that a user of a predetermined mail address is absent, a condition of whether or not to perform the absence notification is set for each of the transmitted mails. The absence notification is performed or not performed on the basis of.

According to the absence notification method of the storage type mail system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the storage type mail system includes a terminal for transmitting / receiving a mail and a mail storage device for storing the mail. In the absence notification method of a storage type mail system that automatically transmits an absence notification indicating that the user of the predetermined mail address is absent to a sender of an email transmitted to a predetermined email address assigned to the system user, A condition as to whether or not to perform the absence notification is set for each of the transmitted mails, and the absence notification is performed only when the condition set based on this condition is satisfied.

[0010] In the absence notification method of the storage type mail system according to the first aspect, the condition may be set for each predetermined mail address of the mail storage device. .

Further, as in the invention according to claim 3, in the absence notification method of the storage type mail system according to claim 1, the condition may be set in the terminal.

Therefore, according to the invention described in claim 1, claim 2, or claim 3, when the user of the mail system cannot receive (read) a mail due to absence or the like. Since it is possible to set the conditions for sending an absence notification mail on the user side, it is possible to prevent unnecessary sending of an absence notification mail such as a mailing list, an absence notification mail for news delivery, etc. It is possible to reduce unnecessary traffic in the communication network.

As a result, the communication line resources in the communication network can be effectively used,
Other users can perform high-speed communication on the communication network and can effectively use the capacity of the mailbox of the mail storage device without wasting.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage type mail system comprising a terminal for transmitting / receiving a mail and a mail storage device for storing the mail, wherein a mail address is assigned to a predetermined mail address assigned to the user of the mail system. In a transfer method of a storage type mail system for automatically transferring an e-mail sent to another e-mail address, a condition is set as to whether or not the e-mail is to be transmitted for each of the transmitted e-mails. It is characterized by performing or not performing.

According to the transfer method of the storage type mail system of the invention, the storage type mail system is composed of a terminal for transmitting / receiving mail and a mail storage device for storing the mail. In a transfer method of a storage type mail system for automatically transferring an e-mail sent to a predetermined e-mail address assigned to a user to another e-mail address, a condition for setting whether or not to transfer each e-mail is set. Then, the transfer is performed only when the condition set based on this condition is satisfied.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the transfer method of the storage type mail system according to the fourth aspect,
The condition may be set for each predetermined mail address of the mail storage device.

Further, as in the invention according to claim 6, in the transfer method of the storage type mail system according to claim 4,
The condition may be set in the terminal.

Therefore, according to the invention described in claim 4, claim 5, or claim 6, when the user of the mail system cannot receive (read) the mail due to absence or the like. Since it is possible for the user to set the conditions for automatic transmission transmission, it is not possible to restrict the automatic transmission of e-mails that can be received at other e-mail addresses to, for example, news distribution. Necessary automatic transfer can be prevented from being performed, and wasteful traffic in the communication network can be reduced.

By this, the user who has made the automatic transfer setting, when reading the automatic transfer mail received by communicating with the mail storage device, sends unnecessary automatic transfer mail to a personal computer or the like. Since it is not received by your own communication terminal, it is possible to reduce unnecessary traffic on the communication network, and if you use a communication line that requires a usage fee according to the communication time, Costs can be reduced.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the mail receiving method for receiving a mail, a condition as to whether or not the absence notification mail is stored when the absence notification mail is received is set, and based on the set condition. The absence notification mail is stored or not stored.

According to the mail receiving method of the present invention, in the mail receiving method for receiving a mail, a condition for setting whether or not to store the absence notification mail when the absence notification mail is received is set. Only when the condition set based on this condition is satisfied, the absence notification mail is stored.

Therefore, it is possible to set a condition as to whether the mail stored in the mail storage device is stored or not. For example, when a user sends a mail to another user, It is possible to set whether or not to save the out-of-office notification mail when the notification is returned, and for the user who has set the reception of the out-of-office notification, the mail in the mail storage device assigned to the user is set. It can be used effectively without wasting the capacity of the box.

Thus, the user who has made the setting for receiving the absence notification can read the received absence mail by communicating with the mail storage device and send the unnecessary absence notification mail to a personal computer or the like. Since it is not received by your own communication terminal, it is possible to reduce unnecessary traffic on the communication network, and if you use a communication line that requires a usage fee according to the communication time, Costs can be reduced.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) An e-mail system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

First, the configuration will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an electronic mail system 1 when the Internet 2 is used via a provider as an example of a network.

In FIG. 1, the electronic mail system 1 is
The mail server 3 and the mail server 5 are directly connected to the Internet 2, and the personal computer 4 is a telephone line, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).
ork) is connected to the mail server 3 by a communication line such as a line or a dedicated line, and the personal computer 6 is similarly connected to the mail server 5. In FIG. 1, the personal computer 4 and the personal computer 6 are personal computers used by a specific user, and mail transmitted from the user of the personal computer 6 to the mail address of the user of the personal computer 4 (FIG. 1) Is received by the mail server 5 and the mail server 3
To the personal computer 4 (FIG. 1).
The mail server 3 returns the absence notification to the mail server 5 according to the absence notification setting (FIG. 1A) performed by the user (FIG. 1A), and the user of the personal computer 6 receives the absence notification mail from the mail server 5. (FIG. 1) A case is shown. In FIG. 1, communication between the Internet 2 and the mail server 3 or the mail server 5 and communication between the mail server 3 and the personal computer 4 or between the mail server 5 and the personal computer 6 are illustrated as wired connections. However, these may be wireless communications.

In FIG. 1, a mail server 3 is a server dedicated to mail management among various servers provided by a provider, and is connected to another provider and the Internet via a router (not shown) provided by the provider. By being connected to the connection point, it is connected to the Internet 2 network.

Hereinafter, the internal configuration of the mail server 3 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mail server 3. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, a mail server 3 includes a CPU 31, an input device 32, and a RAM.
33, a display device 34, a printing device 35, a communication control unit 36,
A storage device 37 and a storage medium 38 are provided, and each unit except the storage medium 38 is connected by a bus 39.

CPU (Central Processing Unit) 31
Reads the e-mail management application program stored in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37, stores it in the work memory area in the RAM 33, and performs various e-mail management application programs in accordance with the e-mail management application program stored in the RAM 33. The processing is executed, and the processing result is stored in the work memory area in the RAM 33 and displayed on the display device 34. Then, the processing result stored in the work memory area is stored in a predetermined storage destination of the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37.

The CPU 31 performs an absence notification determination process (see FIG. 5) to be described later when an e-mail is received from another user via a communication line in accordance with the program of the e-mail management application, and a storage device. 3
When the absence notification condition is read out to the mailbox for the user of the personal computer 4 set in the storage medium 38 in 7 and an e-mail transmitted from another user (for example, the user of the personal computer 6) is received, After determining whether or not to perform the absence notification based on the absence notification condition, the absence notification issuing process is executed only when it is determined that the absence notification is to be performed.

The input device 32 includes a keyboard having cursor keys, numeric input keys, various function keys, and the like, and a mouse as a pointing device. The input device 32 outputs to the CPU 31 a pressing signal of a key pressed by the keyboard. , And outputs an operation signal from the mouse to the CPU 31. A RAM (Random Access Memory) 33 has a work memory area for storing the e-mail management application program, input instructions, input data, processing results, and the like. The display device 34 is a CRT (Cathode Ray Tub).
e) It is constituted by a liquid crystal display device or the like, and displays display data input from the CPU 31. The printing device 35 prints data and the like created by the e-mail management application program corresponding to the mail server 3.

The communication control unit 36 has a modem (MODEM:
MOdulator / DEModulator), terminal adapter (T
A: A terminal adapter or a router, and controls communication with an external device via a communication line such as a telephone line, an ISDN line, or a dedicated line. The modem is used to communicate with an external device such as a personal computer 4 via a telephone line.
Is a device that modulates the digital data processed by the telephone line into an analog signal suitable for the frequency band of the telephone line, and demodulates the analog signal input via the telephone line into a digital signal. Is a device for converting an existing interface into an I interface compatible with ISDN in order to perform communication with an external device such as a personal computer 4 via a personal computer 4. (Local Area Network), the LAN on the provider side including the mail server 3
And a device for connecting between the LAN including the personal computer 4.

The storage device 37 has a storage medium 38 in which programs, data, and the like are stored in advance, and this storage medium 38 can generally be accessed at a higher speed than other storage media. It is composed of a magnetic recording medium called a simple hard disk. The storage medium 38 stores the e-mail management application program corresponding to the mail server 3 and data processed by the program.

The electronic mail management application stored in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37 is, for example, SM
TP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) (TCP / I
Server application that communicates with a personal computer 4 or a mail server 5 connected via a communication line based on an e-mail protocol (e.g., e-mail protocol in P environment). It is.

This e-mail management application
When the mail server 3 receives an e-mail transmitted from the personal computer 4 via a communication line by using a protocol such as SMTP, the mail server 3 refers to header information including information such as a source and a destination, and And a program for transferring the received e-mail to an appropriate mail server (e.g., mail server 5).

The electronic mail management application is provided with an absence notification and an automatic transfer function that can be set by the user himself via a communication line when the user cannot read the received mail due to a long absence or the like. Includes programs related to such services. Then, the programs related to these services perform processing for setting under which conditions the absence notification and the automatic transfer are performed, and after determining whether or not to actually perform the absence notification based on the set conditions. And an absence notification determination process (see FIG. 5 described later) for performing an absence notification issuance process.

Here, the absence notification setting screen in the absence notification condition setting processing of the program relating to the absence notification service will be described below.

FIG. 4 shows a personal computer 4 for example.
When the user sets the absence notification by connecting to the mail server 3 through the communication line, the absence notification executed by the electronic mail management application stored in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37 of the mail server 3 FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a state where a setting screen is displayed on the display device 44 of the personal computer 4 via a communication line.

As shown in FIG. 4, the user first checks the check box for either “do not set” or “set” for the item “Please set up absence notification”. Select by Here, if "not set" is selected, the subsequent settings are invalid, and the absence notification service is not executed. If "set" is selected, the absence notification service based on the subsequent settings is executed. You.

In FIG. 4, for the item "Please enter the content of the absence notification", the text of the reply mail as the absence notification for the e-mail sent from another user and received by the mail server 3 is set. I do. FIG.
In the example of the above, the statement "I am traveling abroad now. I will be able to reply after mid-June." Tells the reason why the user of the personal computer 4 will be absent for how long. , The contents can be notified to the sender of the mail based on the following setting contents.

For the item of “conditions for performing absence notification”, “sender” (sender such as an individual or a domain) and “subject” (title, keyword in the text of mail, etc.) in the case of always performing absence notification ), Select and set each condition by checking the check box (if not selected, the condition will not be determined),
Next, “own address conditions” (the user's address is “To:” (destination) and “Cc:” (copy destination) can be individually selected or deselected) are set.
Select whether or not to make a conditional determination of “transmission time” by checking the check box, and set the start and end dates of the period (if not selected, no conditional determination is made) .

In the example shown in FIG. 4, since "source" and "subject" are not selected, it is not determined whether or not these conditions are met.
Is "To:", the absence notification is set for all received mails. In addition, the condition determination is not performed on the received mail whose “own address condition” is “Cc:” (this does not mean that the absence notification is not performed). Further, the condition determination regarding the “transmission time” is not performed.

Similarly, for the item of “conditions for not performing absence notification”, each of “sender” and “subject” in the case of not performing absence notification is checked by checking the check box. Select and set (if not selected, no condition judgment will be made), then set "your addressing condition", and then "call time"
Is selected by checking the check box, and then the start and end dates of the period are set (if not selected, the condition is not determined).

In the example shown in FIG. 4, since "source" and "subject" are selected, it is determined whether or not these conditions are met.
x @ zzzzzz. co. The absence notification is set not to be performed for the received mail from the user who is jp, the received mail transmitted as the ML (mailing list), and the received mail whose “own address condition” is “Cc:”. . Further, the condition determination is not performed on the received mail whose “own address condition” is “To:” (this does not mean that the absence notification is performed). In addition, "call time"
Is set from [6] month [15] day to [97] year [] month [] month [] day, so that the absence notification is not set for mail received after June 15th. Has become. This setting is performed, for example, on the personal computer 4
This is effective when the user can read the received mail around June 15 and can reply.

Next, for the item of "conditions that do not match whether or not to perform absence notification", none of the "conditions for performing absence notification" and "conditions for not performing absence notification" do not match. Either “not perform” or “not perform” the absence notification is selected for the received mail by checking the check box. In the example of FIG. 4, since “execute” is selected, the absence notification is performed for the received mail that does not match any of the “conditions for performing absence notification” and the “conditions for not performing absence notification”. It is set as follows.

After the above setting is completed, the user of the personal computer 4 operates the input device 32 such as a mouse.
By clicking the [RESET] button arranged at the bottom of the absence notification setting screen in FIG. 4, all the settings are reset to the initial state, and when the [SEND] button is clicked, the absence notification setting contents are displayed. The data is transmitted to the mail server 3 and stored in the mailbox for the user of the personal computer 4 set in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37 of the mail server 3. The above is the description of the absence notification service program.

The input device 32,
Each device such as the display device 34, the printing device 35, and the terminal adapter and the router as the communication control unit 36 may not be dedicated to the mail server 3 but may be configured to be shared by various servers provided by the provider. The above is the detailed description of the internal configuration of the mail server 3. Also, the internal configuration of the mail server 5 is the same as that of the mail server 3, so that illustration and detailed description thereof are omitted.

In FIG. 1, a personal computer 4
Is connected to various servers (not shown) provided by the provider in addition to the mail server 3 via a communication line such as a telephone line, an ISDN line, or a dedicated line.

Hereinafter, the internal configuration of the personal computer 4 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the personal computer 4. As shown in FIG.
In FIG. 3, a personal computer 4 includes a CPU 4
1, an input device 42, a RAM 43, a display device 44, a printing device 45, a communication control unit 46, a storage device 47, and a storage medium 48.
9.

The CPU 41 stores an application program specified from various application programs corresponding to the personal computer 4 stored in the storage device 47 and various instructions or data input from the input device 42 into a work memory in the RAM 43. Stored in the area, and in accordance with this input instruction and input data, RAM
Various processes are executed in accordance with the application programs stored in the RAM 43, and the processing results are stored in a work memory area in the RAM 43 and displayed on the display device 5. Then, the processing result stored in the work memory area is stored in the storage destination of the storage medium 48 in the storage device 47 instructed to be input from the input device 42.

When the absence notification setting request instruction is input from the user via the input device 32, the CPU 41
The absent notification screen data transmitted from the mail server 3 via the communication line is analyzed, and an absent notification setting screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display device 44. Made
When the click operation of the [SEND] button shown in FIG. 4 is performed, the set absence notification condition is transmitted to the mail server 3 via the communication line.

The input device 42 includes a keyboard having cursor keys, numeric input keys, various function keys, and the like, and a mouse as a pointing device. The input device 42 outputs to the CPU 41 a pressing signal of a key pressed by the keyboard. , And outputs an operation signal from the mouse to the CPU 41. The RAM 43 has a work memory area for storing designated application programs, input instructions, input data, processing results, and the like. The display device 44 has a CR
T, a liquid crystal display device, etc., for displaying display data input from the CPU 41. The printing device 45 prints data and the like created by various application programs corresponding to the personal computer 4.

The communication control section 46 is constituted by a modem, a terminal adapter, a router, or the like, and controls communication with an external device via a communication line such as a telephone line, an ISDN line, or a dedicated line.

The storage device 47 has a storage medium 48 in which programs, data and the like are stored in advance, and this storage medium 48 is constituted by a magnetic or optical recording medium or a semiconductor memory. The storage medium 48 is fixedly provided in the storage device 47 or is detachably mounted. The storage medium 48 is processed by various application programs corresponding to the personal computer 4 and processing programs. The stored data is stored.

As an application program stored in the storage medium 48 in the storage device 47, there is an electronic mail application. This e-mail application is, for example, SMTP, POP (Post Office Protocol).
ol) (both are based on an e-mail protocol such as an e-mail protocol in a TCP / IP environment) and communicate with a mail server 3 connected via a communication line to transmit and receive e-mail. Application. The e-mail application has various functions for assisting the user in e-mail transmission / reception operations. For example, management of transmission / reception mail files (editing, saving, deleting, etc.), management of mail address book, setting of transmission / reception schedule , Encryption, decryption, and the like.

The program, data, and the like stored in the storage medium 48 may be configured to be received and stored from another device connected via a communication line or the like. A storage device having the storage medium 48 may be provided on the other connected device side, and a program, data, and the like stored in the storage medium 48 may be used via a communication line.

The above is a detailed description of the internal configuration of the personal computer 4. Since the internal configuration of the personal computer 6 is the same as that of the personal computer 4, its illustration and detailed description are omitted.

Next, the operation will be described.

In the electronic mail system 1 according to the present embodiment, when the user of the personal computer 6 sends an electronic mail to the mail address of the user of the personal computer 4, the mail sent from the personal computer 6 is received. The absence notification determination processing of the mail server 3 when the mail server 5 transfers the received electronic mail to the mail server 3 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the CPU 31 of the mail server 3
The header and the body of the e-mail transferred from the mail server 5 and received are read, and the information is stored in the RAM.
33 in the work memory area (step S
1). Next, when the CPU 31 determines that the received electronic mail is an electronic mail addressed to the user of the personal computer 4 with reference to the destination mail address of the header read in step S1, the CPU 31 The absence notification condition is read from the mailbox for the user of the personal computer 4 set in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37 (step S2), and in the following steps S3 to S12, the condition determination of the absence notification condition is performed. Do.

That is, first, the CPU 31 determines whether or not to use the absence notification by referring to the information corresponding to the item “Please set the absence notification” shown in FIG. 4 (step S3). In step S3, if the CPU 31 determines that “not set” is set, the CPU 31 ends the absence notification determination process, and if it determines that “set” is set, the CPU 31 returns to FIG. Then, the process proceeds to steps S4 to S7 in which the determination regarding the “condition for performing absence notification” shown in FIG.

In step S4, the CPU 31 determines whether the condition is issued by the “source” in response to the absence condition based on the “condition for performing absence notification” on the absence notification setting screen shown in FIG. The condition is determined, and if the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S13 to execute the absence notification issuance process. If the condition is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step S5.
Move to In step S5, the CPU 31
A condition determination is made as to whether or not the "subject" is a condition to be issued. If the condition is met, the flow shifts to step S13 to execute the absence notification issuance process. Transition. In step S6, the CPU 31 determines whether or not the "own address condition" is a condition to be issued. If the condition is satisfied, the CPU 31 shifts to step S13 to execute an absence notification issuing process. If the conditions do not match, the process moves to step S7. In step S7, the CPU 31 makes a condition determination as to whether or not the “transmission time” is a condition for issuing. If the condition is met, the CPU 31 proceeds to step S13 and executes an absence notification issuing process. Figure 4
Then, the process proceeds to steps S8 to S11 in which the determination regarding the "condition for not performing absence notification" is performed.

In steps S8 to S11, as in steps S4 to S7, the CPU 31 makes a condition determination for the absence notification condition based on the "condition for not performing absence notification" on the absence notification setting screen shown in FIG. . That is,
In step S8, the CPU 31 makes a condition determination as to whether or not the condition is such that the “source” is not issued. If the condition is met, the absence notification determination process ends. Then, the process proceeds to step S9. In step S9, the CPU 31 determines “subject”
Makes a condition determination as to whether or not the condition is not issued, and if the condition is satisfied, terminates the absence notification determination process,
If the condition is not met, the process moves to step S10.
In step S10, the CPU 31 determines whether or not the "own address condition" is a condition not to be issued. If the condition is satisfied, the CPU 31 terminates the absence notification determination process and does not match the condition. In this case, the process proceeds to step S11. In step S11, the CPU 31
A determination is made as to whether or not the “transmission time” is a condition not to be issued. If the condition is met, the absence notification determination process is terminated. If the condition is not met, the “absence notification” shown in FIG. The process proceeds to step S12 where a determination is made regarding “conditions that do not match whether or not to perform”.

In step S12, the CPU 31
Determines whether the absence notification condition is “performed” or “not performed” based on “conditions that do not match whether to perform absence notification / not performed” shown in FIG. 4, and selects “performed”. If it is determined that there is no presence notification, the process proceeds to step S13 to execute the absence notification issuance process. If it is determined that "do not perform" is selected, the absence notification determination process ends.

By the above-described series of absence notification determination processes, it is possible to make detailed settings on whether or not to make an absence notification under various conditions.

As described above, in the electronic mail system 1 according to the first embodiment, the CPU 31 of the mail server 3 uses the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37.
When the user of the personal computer 4 inputs an absence notification setting request instruction via a communication line, the absence management setting screen data is transmitted to the personal computer 4. The CPU 41 of the personal computer 4
The transmitted absence notification screen data is analyzed and the absence notification setting screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display device 44, and the absence notification condition is set by the user of the personal computer 4, and [SEND] shown in FIG. ] Button is clicked, the set absence notification condition is transmitted to the mail server 3 via the communication line. Then, the mail server 3 stores the storage medium 3 in the storage device 37.
The absence notification condition is stored in the mailbox for the user of the personal computer 4 set to 8 and when the electronic mail transmitted from another user (for example, the user of the personal computer 6) is received, the absence notification condition is stored. The absence notification determination process as shown in FIG. 5 described above is performed based on the above, the absence notification is determined whether or not to perform the absence notification, and then the absence notification issuance process is executed only when it is determined that the absence notification is to be performed. .

Therefore, when an e-mail cannot be received (read) due to absence or the like, it is possible for the user to set conditions for transmitting an absence notification, so that a mailing list and news delivery can be made. It is possible to prevent unnecessary transmission of an absentee notification mail such as an absentee notification mail to the like, and to reduce useless traffic in the communication network.

As a result, the communication line resources in the communication network can be effectively used,
Other users can perform high-speed communication on the communication network and can effectively use the mailbox without wasting capacity.

(Second Embodiment) In the first embodiment, the electronic mail system 1 relating to the absence notification service has been described. However, the same effect can be obtained for the automatic transfer service by the electronic mail system having the same configuration. Obtainable. Thus, hereinafter, an electronic mail system according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 6 only for differences from the first embodiment.

The configuration of the e-mail system according to the second embodiment is substantially the same as that of the e-mail system 1 according to the first embodiment, and is shown in the drawing referred to in the first embodiment. The description will be made using the reference numerals of the constituent elements.

FIG. 6 shows a personal computer 4 for example.
Is connected to the mail server 3 via a communication line to set automatic transfer, the automatic transfer executed by the electronic mail management application stored in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37 of the mail server 3 FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a state where a setting screen is displayed on the display device 44 of the personal computer 4 via a communication line.

As shown in FIG. 6, the user first checks the check box for either “do not set” or “set” for the item “Please set automatic transfer”. Select by Here, if "Not set" is selected, the following settings are invalid, and the automatic transfer service is not executed. If "Set" is selected, the automatic transfer service based on the following settings is executed. You.

In FIG. 6, "address of automatic transfer destination"
For the item, a mail address of a transfer destination is set when an electronic mail transmitted from another user and received by the mail server 3 is automatically transferred to the other mail server. In the example of FIG. 6, “[email protected]”
r. The setting is such that the e-mail received by the mail server 3 is transferred to another mail server corresponding to the mail address “jp”.

For the items of “conditions for automatic transfer”, “sender” (sender such as an individual or a domain) and “subject” (title, keyword in mail text, etc.) when automatic transfer is always performed ), Select and set each condition by checking the check box (if not selected, the condition will not be determined),
Next, “own address conditions” (the user's address is “To:” (destination) and “Cc:” (copy destination) can be individually selected or deselected) are set.
Select whether or not to make a conditional determination of “transmission time” by checking the check box, and set the start and end dates of the period (if not selected, no conditional determination is made) .

In the example of FIG. 6, since "source" has not been selected, it is not determined whether or not this condition is met. Instead, "subject" is selected and "NW (news distribution)" is selected. Is set, automatic transfer is performed when news distribution mail is received. In addition, no condition judgment is made for “own address condition” and “transmission time” (this does not mean that automatic transfer is not performed).

Similarly, for the item of “condition for not performing automatic transfer”, each of “source” and “subject” in the case where automatic transfer is never performed is checked by checking the check box. Select and set (if not selected, no condition judgment will be made), then set "your addressing condition", and then "call time"
Is selected by checking the check box, and then the start and end dates of the period are set (if not selected, the condition is not determined).

In the example shown in FIG. 6, since “source” and “subject” are not selected, it is not determined whether or not these conditions are satisfied. Is not performed (this does not mean that automatic transfer is performed). Furthermore, the “calling time” is [97] [6] month [15]-[] year [] month []
The date is set so that automatic transfer is not performed even for mail received after June 15.
This setting allows the user of the personal computer 4 to read the received mail around June 15, for example.
This is effective when transfer is unnecessary.

Next, for the item of "conditions that do not match whether or not to perform automatic transfer", none of the "conditions for performing automatic transfer" and "conditions for not performing automatic transfer" match Either “perform” or “not perform” the automatic transfer of the received mail is selected by checking the check box. In the example of FIG. 6, since “not perform” is selected, automatic transfer is performed for a received mail that does not match any of the “conditions for performing automatic transfer” and “conditions for not performing automatic transfer”. It is set not to be performed.

After the above settings are completed, the user of the personal computer 4 operates the input device 32 such as a mouse.
By clicking the [RESET] button arranged at the bottom of the automatic transfer setting screen in FIG. 6, all the settings are reset to the initial state, and when the [SEND] button is clicked, the contents of the automatic transfer setting are changed. The data is transmitted to the mail server 3 and stored in the mailbox for the user of the personal computer 4 set in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37 of the mail server 3. The above is the description of the automatic transfer service program.

Then, similarly to the absence notification determination processing of the electronic mail system 1 of the first embodiment, the automatic transfer is performed after sequentially performing the condition determination as to whether or not each item of the automatic transfer setting content is matched. By performing the automatic transfer determination processing set to perform the processing, the automatic transfer of the mail is performed based on the content arbitrarily set by the user of the personal computer 4.

Therefore, when an e-mail cannot be received (read) due to absence or the like, it is possible for the user to set conditions for automatic transfer transmission. Unnecessary automatic transfer can be prevented by limiting the e-mail to be automatically transferred when it can be received to, for example, news distribution, and unnecessary traffic on the communication network can be reduced. Becomes

Thus, when the user who has made the automatic transfer setting reads the automatic transfer mail received by communicating with the mail server, the unnecessary automatic transfer mail is transmitted to his / her personal computer or the like. Is not received by other communication terminals, so that unnecessary traffic on the communication network can be reduced, and if a communication line that requires a usage fee according to the communication time is used, the communication cost Can be reduced.

(Third Embodiment) An electronic mail system 11 according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

First, the configuration will be described. The configuration of the e-mail system 11 according to the third embodiment is substantially the same as that of the e-mail system 1 according to the first embodiment. The same components as those described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configuration of the electronic mail system 11 when the Internet 2 is used via a provider as an example of a network.

In FIG. 7, the electronic mail system 11
Is that the mail server 13 and the mail server 15 are directly connected to the Internet 2, the personal computer 4 is connected to the mail server 13 by a communication line such as a telephone line, an ISDN line, or a dedicated line. Is connected to the mail server 15. In FIG. 7, the personal computer 4 and the personal computer 6 are personal computers used by a specific user, and the user of the personal computer 6 sends the mail to the mail address of the user of the personal computer 4 (FIG. 7). Is received by the mail server 15 and transferred to the mail server 13 (FIG. 7).
7), the mail server 13 returns the absence notification to the mail server 15 in accordance with the absence notification setting made by the user of the personal computer 4 (FIG. 7A) (FIG. 7A).
The mail server 15 saves the returned absence notice in the mailbox according to the setting of the absence notice reception set by the user of the personal computer 6 (FIG. 7B), and the user of the personal computer 6 sends the absence notice from the mail server 15. It is assumed that a notification mail is received (FIG. 7). In FIG. 7, the Internet 2 and the mail server 13 or the mail server 1 are shown.
5 and the communication between the mail server 13 and the personal computer 4 or the communication between the mail server 15 and the personal computer 6 are shown as wired connections, but these may be wireless communication.

In FIG. 7, a mail server 15 is a server dedicated to mail management among various servers provided by the provider, and is connected to another provider and the Internet via a router (not shown) provided by the provider. By being connected to the connection point, it is connected to the Internet 2 network.

Hereinafter, the mail server 15 will be described with reference to FIG.
Will be described in detail. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mail server 15. 8, a mail server 15 includes a CPU 151 and an input device 1.
52, RAM 153, display device 154, printing device 15
5, a communication control unit 156, a storage device 157, and a storage medium 158. Each unit except the storage medium 158 is connected by a bus 159.

Of these components, the input device 152,
The components of the RAM 153, the display device 154, the printing device 155, and the communication control unit 156 are the same as the input device 3 in FIG. 2 showing the mail server 3 of the first embodiment.
2. Since it has the same function as each component of the RAM 33, the display device 34, the printing device 35, and the communication control unit 36, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The CPU 151 reads the e-mail management application program stored in the storage medium 158 in the storage device 157, stores the read e-mail management application program in the work memory area in the RAM 153, and according to the e-mail management application program stored in the RAM 153. Executes various e-mail management processes and saves the
While storing in the work memory area in M153,
It is displayed on the display device 154. Then, the processing result stored in the work memory area is stored in the storage medium 1 in the storage device 157.
58 in a predetermined storage destination.

Further, when the user of the personal computer 6 receives the absence notification reception setting request instruction via the communication line according to the electronic mail management application, the CPU 151 transmits the absence notification reception setting screen data to the personal computer 6. Send. And CP
U151 stores the absence notification condition input from the user of the personal computer 6 via the communication line in the mailbox for the user of the personal computer 6 set in the storage medium 158 in the storage device 157, When an e-mail transmitted from another user (for example, a user of the personal computer 4) is received, the header of the received e-mail is referred to determine whether or not the received e-mail is an absence notification mail. After that, when the received e-mail is determined to be the absence notification mail, the absence notification reception determination processing as shown in FIG. 9 is performed based on the absence notification reception condition,
After determining whether to perform the absence notification mail reception processing or not, only when it is determined that the absence notification mail is to be received, the user of the personal computer 6 set in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37 will be displayed. Save the received out-of-office notification email in the mailbox of.

The storage device 157 has a storage medium 158 in which programs, data, and the like are stored in advance, and this storage medium 158 can generally be accessed at a higher speed than other storage media. It is composed of a magnetic recording medium called a simple hard disk. This storage medium 15
8 stores the e-mail management application program corresponding to the mail server 15 and data processed by this program.

The e-mail management application stored in the storage medium 158 in the storage device 157 communicates with the personal computer 6 and the mail server 13 connected via a communication line based on an e-mail protocol such as SMTP. It is a server application that manages the transmission and reception of e-mail by performing communication.

This e-mail management application
When the mail server 15 receives an e-mail transmitted from the personal computer 6 using a protocol such as SMTP via a communication line, the mail server 15 refers to header information including information on a source, a destination, and the like. And a program for transferring the received electronic mail to an appropriate mail server (e.g., mail server 13).

Further, the electronic mail management application provides an absence notification, an automatic transfer function, which can be set by the user himself via a communication line when the user cannot read the received mail due to a long absence or the like. Includes programs related to such services.

Further, the e-mail application transmits an e-mail transmitted to another user (hereinafter, for example, a user of the personal computer 4) by the mail server 13 having a mailbox for the user of the personal computer 4. When the absence notification mail is transmitted to the mail server 15 by the absence notification issuance process of the mail server 13 after the reception, the absence notification reception setting process of setting whether to receive the absence notification mail, It includes a program for executing an absence notification reception determination process (see FIG. 9), which will be described later, which is performed based on the absence notification reception condition set in the process.

In the absence notification receiving setting process, a setting screen similar to the absence notification setting screen shown in FIG. 4 (the display content varies depending on the setting content) is displayed, and whether or not to receive the absence notification mail is displayed. Either “Do not receive” is selected by the user, and [SEND] similar to FIG.
When the button is clicked, the absence notification reception setting is transmitted to the mail server 15 and the mailbox for the user of the personal computer 6 is set in the storage medium 158 in the storage device 157 of the mail server 15. Is stored.

Next, the operation will be described. In the e-mail system 11 according to the present embodiment, when the user of the personal computer 6 sends an e-mail to the e-mail address of the user of the personal computer 4, the mail server 15 receives the e-mail sent from the personal computer 6. Transfer the received e-mail to the mail server 13, and further, when the mail server 13 replies to the mail server 15 with a mail indicating the absence of the user of the personal computer 4, the absence of the mail server 15 The notification reception determination processing will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

First, the CPU 151 of the mail server 15
Reads the header of the e-mail transferred and received from the mail server 13, and stores this information in the work memory area in the RAM 153 (step S20).
Next, the CPU 151 refers to the header information read in step S20 and determines whether the received e-mail is an absence notification mail (step S20).
21). Then, when the CPU 151 determines that the received e-mail is not the absence notification mail, it performs a normal mail reception process (step S22). However, when it determines that the received e-mail is the absence notification mail, it reads it in step S20. The mail address of the destination of the header information is referred to, the absence notification reception condition set by the user corresponding to the mail address (here, the user of the personal computer 6) is read, and stored in the work memory area in the RAM 153 ( Step S23).

If the absence notification reception condition read in step S23 is set to “receive”, the received absence notification mail is stored in the mailbox for the user of the storage device 157 personal computer 6 and stored. (Step S25) When the absence notification reception determination process is completed and the absence notification reception condition is set to “not receive”, the received absence notification mail is deleted from the work memory in the RAM 153 without saving. Then (step S26), the absence notification reception determination processing ends.

Through the above series of absence notification reception determination processing, it is possible for the user who receives the absence notification mail to set whether or not to receive the absence notification mail.

As described above, in the electronic mail system 11 according to the third embodiment, the CPU 151 of the mail server 15 executes the electronic mail management application stored in the storage medium 158 in the storage device 157. When a user of the personal computer 6 inputs an absence notification reception setting request instruction via a communication line, the absence computer reception setting screen data is transmitted to the personal computer 6. Personal computer 6
CPU analyzes the transmitted absence notification reception setting screen data and displays the absence notification reception setting screen on the display device, and the user of the personal computer 6 sets the absence notification reception condition, and the CPU shown in FIG. When the [SEND] button is clicked in the same manner as described above, the set absence notification receiving condition is transmitted to the mail server 15 via the communication line. And mail server 15
Stores the absence notification condition in a mailbox for the user of the personal computer 6 set in the storage medium 158 in the storage device 157, and transmits the electronic mail transmitted from another user (for example, the user of the personal computer 4). Upon receiving the mail, the received e-mail is referred to the header of the received e-mail to determine whether the received e-mail is the absence notification mail, and then the received e-mail is determined to be the absence notification mail. When the absence notification is received, the absence notification reception determination process as shown in FIG. 9 is performed based on the absence notification reception condition, and it is determined whether the absence notification mail reception process is to be performed or not. Only when it is determined that the mail is received, the user of the personal computer 6 set in the storage medium 38 in the storage device 37 is received. In the mail box for the over,
Save the received out-of-office mail.

Therefore, it is possible to set whether or not to receive the absence notification mail when the absence notification is returned from the other user to the electronic mail transmitted to the other user by the user. Therefore, the user who has set the reception of the absence notification can effectively use the capacity of the mailbox allocated to the user without wasting it.

Thus, when the user who has made the setting of receiving the absence notification reads the received e-mail by communicating with the mail server, the user sends the unnecessary absence notification mail to a personal computer or the like. Since it is not received by your own communication terminal, it is possible to reduce unnecessary traffic on the communication network, and if you use a communication line that requires a usage fee according to the communication time, Costs can be reduced.

As described above, the electronic mail system 1 according to the first embodiment has a configuration in which the sender of the electronic mail sets whether or not to return the absence notification mail. In the electronic mail system 11 of the embodiment, the receiver of the electronic mail sets whether or not to receive the absence notification mail. However, both the setting of the sender and the setting of the receiver are valid. It can also be. That is, in this case, each mail server includes both the absence notification determination processing (FIG. 5) and the absence notification reception determination processing (FIG. 9) in the electronic mail management application.

In the above description of the embodiment of the present invention, the e-mail system via the Internet 2 has been described. However, in recent years, the technology in the field of communication has been rapidly advanced, and various other communication forms have been developed. Can be considered. For example, the present invention relates to an electronic mail system via personal computer communication on a commercial network, PHS (Personal Han).
The present invention can be applied to a mail system using a wide area network, such as transmission and reception of e-mail and voice mail by wireless communication using a portable communication terminal such as a dyphone system, and an e-mail system over a LAN.

Further, in the above-described third embodiment, the processing relating to the out-of-office mail has been described in detail. However, the same effect can be realized by the same configuration and processing for the automatic transfer service of electronic mail. can do.

[0109]

According to the first, second, or third aspect of the present invention,
According to the invention described in (1), when the user of the mail system cannot receive (read) the mail due to reasons such as absence, it is possible to set the conditions for transmitting the absence notification mail on the user side. Therefore, it is possible to prevent unnecessary sending of an absent notification mail such as an absent notification mail for mailing lists, news delivery, and the like, and it is possible to reduce useless traffic in the communication network.

As a result, the communication line resources in the communication network can be effectively used,
Other users can perform high-speed communication on the communication network and can effectively use the capacity of the mailbox of the mail storage device without wasting.

According to the invention described in claim 4, claim 5 or claim 6, when the user of the mail system cannot receive (read) the mail due to absence or the like, the user It is possible to set the conditions for sending automatic forwarding on the side, so that emails that are automatically forwarded when they can be received at other email addresses are, for example, limited to news distribution, and unnecessary Automatic transfer can be prevented, and wasteful traffic on the communication network can be reduced.

Thus, the user who has made the setting of the automatic transfer, when reading the automatic transfer mail received by communicating with the mail storage device, sends unnecessary automatic transfer mail to a personal computer or the like. Since it is not received by your own communication terminal, it is possible to reduce unnecessary traffic on the communication network, and if you use a communication line that requires a usage fee according to the communication time, Costs can be reduced.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, it is possible to set a condition as to whether or not a mail received by the mail storage device is to be stored. It is possible to set whether to save the out-of-office notification mail when the other user returns the out-of-office notification, and the user who has set the reception of the out-of-office notification is assigned to himself / herself. The used capacity of the mailbox in the mail storage device can be effectively used without wasting.

As a result, the user who has made the setting for receiving the absence notification, when reading the received mail by communicating with the mail storage device, sends the unnecessary absence notification mail to a personal computer or the like. Since it is not received by your own communication terminal, it is possible to reduce unnecessary traffic on the communication network, and if you use a communication line that requires a usage fee according to the communication time, Costs can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic mail system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention when the Internet 2 is used via a provider as an example of a network.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mail server 3 shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a personal computer 4 shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state in which an absence notification setting screen executed by the electronic mail management application is displayed on the display device 44 of the personal computer 4 via a communication line.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an absence notification determination process executed by the electronic mail system 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state where an automatic transfer setting screen executed by the electronic mail management application is displayed on the display device 44 of the personal computer 4 via a communication line.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic mail system 11 according to a third embodiment of the present invention when the Internet 2 is used via a provider as an example of a network.

8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the mail server 15 shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an absence notification reception determination process executed by the electronic mail system 11 according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 E-mail system 2 Internet 3 Mail server 31 CPU 32 Input device 33 RAM 34 Display device 35 Printing device 36 Communication control part 37 Storage device 38 Storage medium 39 Bus 4 Personal computer 41 CPU 42 Input device 43 RAM 44 Display device 45 Printing device 46 communication control unit 47 storage device 48 storage medium 49 bus 5 mail server 6 personal computer 11 electronic mail system 13 mail server 15 mail server

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A storage mail system comprising a terminal for sending and receiving mail and a mail storage device for storing the mail, wherein the mail transmitted to a predetermined mail address assigned to the user of the mail system. In the absence notification method of the storage type mail system, which automatically sends an absence notification indicating that the user of the predetermined mail address is absent to the sending side, a condition of whether or not to perform the absence notification for each of the transmitted mails is set. An absence notification method for a storage-type mail system, wherein the absence notification is set or not performed based on this condition. 2. The absence notification method for a storage type mail system according to claim 1, wherein said condition is set for each predetermined mail address of said mail storage device. 3. The absence notification method according to claim 1, wherein the condition is set in the terminal. 4. A storage mail system comprising a terminal for sending and receiving mail and a mail storage device for storing the mail, wherein the mail transmitted to a predetermined mail address assigned to a user of the mail system. In the transfer method of the storage type mail system for automatically transferring the mail to another mail address, a condition for setting whether or not to transfer each mail to be transmitted is set, and the transfer is performed or not performed based on the condition. Characteristic storage type mail system transfer method. 5. The transfer method according to claim 4, wherein the condition is set for each predetermined mail address of the mail storage device. 6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the condition is set in the terminal. 7. An e-mail receiving method for receiving an e-mail, wherein a condition is set as to whether or not the out-of-office notification mail is stored when the out-of-office notification mail is received. A mail receiving method characterized by storing or not storing.