GB2369954A

GB2369954A - E-mail routing system

Info

Publication number: GB2369954A
Application number: GB0022581A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kerry Michael
Original assignee: REGENCY ABRAXAS; REGENCY FINANCIAL HOLDINGS PLC
Current assignee: REGENCY ABRAXAS; REGENCY FINANCIAL HOLDINGS PLC
Priority date: 2000-09-14
Filing date: 2000-09-14
Publication date: 2002-06-12
Also published as: GB0022581D0

Abstract

An e-mail routing system is disclosed in which an e-mail item is routed from a sender to an intended recipient using a telephone number of the intended recipient in place of the e-mail address thereof. The sender addresses the e-mail item to a conversion location (100) and places a telephone number of the intended recipient into the address field of the e-mail item. The e-mail item so addressed is directed to the conversion location (101) whereat apparatus (106), such as a server, reads the telephone number in the address field of the received e-mail and converts (109) the address into an e-mail address of the intended recipient. The e-mail item addressed with an e-mail address of the intended recipient may then be forwarded to the intended recipient (111, 115). A database containing telephone numbers and related e-mail addresses of known users of the routing system may be employed when converting the address of the e-mail item. The routing system may be employer using the Internet.

Description

E-MAIL ROUTING SYSTEM

The present invention relates to a system for routing of messages sent by e-mail using the Internet.

The use of Internet for transmission of e-mails from one person or organisation to another is now well established. In order to send an e-mail, the sender must know the e-mail address of the recipient, as correct transmission of an e-mail is critically dependent on the correctness of the address. An error in the address will result in the e-mail not being received. However, e-mail addresses are often difficult to remember, and very difficult to guess. Moreover, there are no official directories of e-mail addresses so if the sender does not know the intended recipient's e-mail address, it is unlikely that the e-mail will be received.

The present invention seeks to address this problem, and at its most general proposes that e-mails are sent with an address containing the telephone number of the intended recipient, and that e-mail is then directed to a location at which the address of the e-mail is converted to the e-mail address of the intended recipient.

At the conversion location, there will need to be a database relating telephone numbers to e-mail addresses, and appropriate address conversion arrangements, and thus maintenance of that conversion location may be provided

as a service to others, e. g. with people wishing to receive e-mails using this service paying for the service.

Thus, with the present invention, someone wishing to send an e-mail to someone else can send the e-mail to the conversion location, with an e-mail address containing the telephone number of the intended recipient. If the intended recipient is registered with that conversion location, the e-mail can be forwarded. If they are not, the sender can be told that the e-mail cannot be sent.

Arrangements may be needed to prevent use of this system by senders who misuse it. In particular, a means may be provided for identifying the sender of the e-mail, and checking whether that sender is in a database of known misusers. In such circumstances, the e-mail will not be forwarded.

Normally, the conversion location will'be a suitable e-mail server, but other arrangements are possible provided a suitable database of e-mail addresses and telephone numbers is maintained.

In the simplest case, the receipt of a message at the conversion location could trigger that location to take the message and any attachments, and forward it as an e-mail from the conversion location to the intended recipient. This would be relatively straightforward to achieve, using an appropriate database and normal e-mail

forwarding functions. However, the recipient may then receive an e-mail which, from its origin address, had its origin at the conversion location, rather than the original sender. Therefore, it may be preferable that the conversion location is able to forward the e-mail so that it is received by the intended receiver with information indicating the e-mail address of the original sender, rather than the conversion location. This would enable the recipient to reply to the e-mail directly.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a flow-chart showing the operations carried out when an e-mail is received by, and forwarded, by the conversion location; Fig. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing interoperation of an embodiment of the invention with the Internet, assuming that the e-mail is sent using an email program; Fig. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing the inter-operation of an embodiment of the invention with the Internet, assuming that the e-mail is sent using a Web site; and Fig. 4 is a flow-chart showing the steps involved in registering an e-mail address with the conversion location.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described. In this embodiment, the activities carried out by the address conversion location will be referred to as the Telemail service.

In the subsequent description, the following terms will be used: Browser-Software that interprets HTML files posted on the Internet, and formats them into readable web pages.

Customer-someone who registers their telephone number and e-mail address, and receives email from the Telemail service.

Delivery Notification-an e-mail message sent by a server that notifies the sender that their e-mail was delivered.

DNS-Domain name system, a system used on the Internet to convert human readable domain names into IP addresses.

Domain name-a naming hierarchy used on the Internet.

E-mail-Electronic Mail, a message sent via the Internet, containing text and possibly a file.

From-the name of the field in an e-mail header that denotes who sent the message.

Header-the first part of a e-mail message that has fields and corresponding values used by e-mail servers and not usually read by the recipient.

Internet-The public collection of networks that use TCP/IP to communicate.

IP address-Used by TCP/IP to identify different devices, each device must have a unique IP address.

ISP-Internet Service Provider, a company which provides access to the Internet.

Mail-An abbreviation of e-mail.

Mail account-the delivery location for a recipient's incoming mail messages.

Mail exchanger record-a DNS entry type that specifies the IP address of the mail server for a given domain name.

Receipt Notification-when the sender of an e-mail requests delivery notification of their message.

SMTP-Simple Mail Transfer Protocol a method for sending e-mail on the Internet, as defined in RFC 821.

TCP/IP-Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, a language used by devices to communicate.

Telemail server-the computer that the Telemail service is running on.

Telemail service-a term to incorporate the whole process of the service, as defined by accepting an email message addressed to a telephone number and transmitting the same email message to a customer's email address.

To-the name of the field in an e-mail header that specifies the intended recipient of the e-mail.

User-someone who sends an email to the Telemail service to be sent to a customer.

In the following discussion, the operation of this embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a specific example, so that values assigned to various components of the system, and to addresses of e-mails used by the system have specific values. Of course, the present invention is not limited to these specific values. Table 1 illustrates the values that were used in the specific example:

Variable Description Variable name Value Users e-mail address f-jones7@saxon. net Customers e-mail address < address > Tsmith23@viking. net Customers telephone number < number > 0112 334455 Telemail server domain name conversion. com Telemail server IP address 195. 173. 99. 194 The operation of the embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the flow chart of Fig. 1.

Use of the Telemail service starts at step 100 when a user addresses and sends an e-mail to the Telemail service, in this case the e-mail address is < number > @conversion. com. When this happens, the e-mail will be sent at step 101 via SMTP to the Telemail Server.

The user who sent the message has their e-mail address checked (step 102,103) against a black list or suppression file, to see if they are a known abuser of the service. If the address is found to exist on this list the e-mail they sent will be rejected. An e-mail will be

sent to the user (step 104) informing them that they are not allowed to use the Telemail service. The processing then terminates without the e-mail being sent (step 105).

If the user's address is not found on the blacklist, the e-mail is accepted and the first part (before the @ sign) of the e-mail address is checked against the list of mail accounts on the Telemail server (steps 106 and 107).

If a corresponding account does not exist then the e-mail is rejected, and an e-mail is sent to the user (step 108) informing them that the address is not registered with the Telemail service. Again, processing terminates at step 105.

If a corresponding account does exist at step 107 then the forwarding address for that account is looked up (step 109), and returned (step 110). The e-mail is then re-addressed and sent to the forwarding address (step 111), with the original user sending address kept intact,

and a"Receipt Notification"requested. For example : E-mail received from fjones7@saxon. net with address 0112334455@conversion. com.

Mail account does exist for 0112334455.

Forwarding address for 0112334455 is returned as jsmith23 < Bviking. net

E-mail is sent to address : jsmith23@viking. net Sender address is kept as : fjones7@saxon. net. Delivery Notification sent to : fjones7@saxon. net.

On sending the e-mail to the forwarding address a DNS query will be initiated to find the mail server responsible for handling viking. net mail (steps 112 and 113).

If a query returns that viking. net, does not exist then an e-mail will be sent to the user (step 114) informing them that there is an error with the forwarding address.

Processing again terminates at step 105.

If a query returns the mail server for viking. net then the e-mail will be sent (step 115). The viking. net mail server will check that the forwarding address corresponds to a mail account (steps 116 and 117). If the check is unsuccessful then no such user will be returned by the viking. net mail server and an e-mail will be sent (at step 118) to f jones@saxon. net, informing him that the user was unknown and the e-mail was undeliverable.

Processing again terminates at step 105.

If it is successful the e-mail will be accepted, and the server will be checked to see if it honours"Receipt Notification" (steps 119 and 120). If the mail server honours"Receipt Notification"then a delivery notification will be sent at step 121 to the original email sender, in this case f jones@saxon. net. The e-mail will have successfully been delivered and processing will terminate at step 122. If the mail server does not honour

"Receipt Notification"at step 120, the e-mail may have been delivered but status is unknown (steps 123 and 124).

Thus, the effect of the present invention is to handle an e-mail containing a phone number which is sent to the Telemail service so as to forward that e-mail to the address of the customer.

The Telemail service will need to run on a computer, the specification of which will depend on the chosen software platform, and that computer will need a connection to the Internet the specification of which will depend on the ISP. The Telemail service will need a connection to the Internet, the specification of which should normally include the following: a fixed/permanent connection to the Internet i. e. available 24x7 ; provision of a domain name registered with the relevant Internet authority ; provision of a fixed/permanent IP address as issued by Regional Internet Registries.

The exact hardware configuration used in this embodiment is not critical to the present invention, and may depend largely on the Network Operating System chosen, and the Internet connection. However, in order for the Telemail service to function, a mail exchanger record will normally need to exist in the Internet's DNS servers. This will mean that when someone sends an e-mail to

0112334455@conversion. com the sending computer will be able to resolve the mail record of the"conversion. com" domain name, to the correct IP address e. g. 195.173. 99.194 allowing the e-mail to be routed correctly.

As mentioned above, a Network Operating System is needed, the exact specification of which is not critical to the present invention, but in this embodiment the Operating System should include support for the TCP/IP protocol suite. There is also a requirement for a SMTP mail program, which permits the reception of inbound SMTP mail messages, the forwarding of SMTP mail messages to another address, and scope for an unlimited number of mail accounts. In the embodiment, the following settings would be needed: TCP/IP address: Fixed and set to e. g. 195.173. 99. 194 ; DNS domain name: conversion. com ;

Local DNS name resolution : Set to query ISP's DNS servers.

The file system that the operating system and the SMTP mail program reside on should be configured securely and have restricted access to only authorised administrators of the system and the processes needed to run the operating system and SMTP mail program.

It is desirable that the Network Operation System also permits access to be restricted to certain TCP/IP ports, and also provides for a secure file system. The

SMTP mail program would also need, in the embodiment, to meet the requirements discussed with reference to Fig. 1.

There are several different ways that a user could send e-mail to the Telemail service. They could do this by sending the e-mail through a suitable program on a PC.

Alternatively, the e-mail could be sent via a Web browser interface offered by an outside company, or via a television, mobile telephone, personal digital apparatus, or any other device which supports the sending of e-mails.

Fig. 2 illustrates the arrangement that would occur when the e-mail is sent through a PC e-mail program.

A user 201 creates an e-mail on their mail program on their PC. If they wanted to use the Telemail service they would address the e-mail to < number > @conversion. com, in this case 0112334455@conversion. com. When they send the mail, an SMTP transaction will occur with their local SMTP Mail server 202, in this case smtp. saxon. net. Their local SMTP server will then need to find which server to send the conversion. com email to. It does this by requesting the mail exchanger record for conversion. com from its local DNS server 203. In this case the DNS server returns the IP address as 195.173. 99.194. An SMTP transaction can now occur between the local SMTP server 202 and the Telemail server 204. Once the Telemail server receives the e-mail message it will then check the account 0112334455 and return an e-mail forwarding address,

jsmith23@viking. net. The Telemail server then needs to find which mail server to forward the email onto, it does this by requesting the mail exchanger record for viking. net from its local DNS server 205. In this case the IP address returned is 196.10. 11.1. An SMTP transaction then takes place between the Telemail server and the viking. net mail server 206. At this point the mail is successfully delivered to the intended recipient.

When a user making use of a Web browser based e-mail service makes use of the Telemail service, the operation is then as in Fig. 3. Note that some of the stages and servers shown in Fig. 3 correspond to stages and services shown in Fig. 2, and are thus indicated by the same reference numerals.

A user 201 connects to the Web site that is running the browser based e-mail service, in this case www. webmail. com. In order to find the www. webmail. com web site the users PC will make a DNS query on webmail. com to its local DNS server 301, which would return 153. 145.62. 12, the user can then connect to the web site.

The user then uses the web site in a similar way to an email program. An e-mail can be written and sent using the web site. If the user wishes to use the Telemail service they would address their e-mail to number > @conversion. com, in this case 0112334455@conversion. com. The Webmail 302 server will then need to find which server to send the

conversion. com e-mail to. It does this by requesting the mail exchanger record for conversion. com from its local DNS server 303. In this case the DNS server returns the IP address as 195.173. 99.194. An SMTP transaction can now occur between the Webmail server 302 and the Tele-mail server 204. Once the Telemail server receives the e-mail message it will then check the account 0112334455 and return an email forwarding address, jsmith23@viking. net.

The Telemail server then needs to find which mail server to forward the e-mail onto, it does this by requesting the mail exchanger record for viking. net from its local DNS server 205. In this case the IP address returned is 196.10. 11.1. An SMTP transaction then takes place between the Telemail server 204 and the viking. net mail server 206. At this point the mail is successfully delivered to the intended recipient.

The discussion of the embodiment above assumes that details of the customer to whom the user wishes to send the e-mail are already stored on the Telemail server 204.

In order for this to happen the customer must have their details registered with the Telemail server 204 and this registration process will now be described with reference to Fig. 4. The registration process may be performed over the Internet, via a Web site, or in other ways.

Registration starts by a customer applying 401 to register, at which time they are presented 402 with the

Telemail terms & conditions. The customer is asked 403 whether they agree to these terms & conditions. If the customer refuses to agree, they are denied use of the Telemail service 404; and processing terminates 405.

If the customer agrees they are asked 406 to enter the telephone number they wish to register with the Telemail service. This is checked 407 against a list of telephone numbers that are already registered with the Telemail service. In this embodiment, if a duplicate is found at step 408 the telephone number is rejected 409 and the customer is invited to enter a different telephone number. However, it may be possible, within the invention to have multiple addresses recorded against the same telephone number. Processing returns to step 406. If the telephone number has not been previously registered it is accepted 410 and stored as < number > .

The customer is then asked 411 to enter the e-mail address they wish to register. The domain part of this email address is checked 412,413 to see if it exists, for example if the e-mail address is j smith23@viking. net then a DNS query would be made on viking. net. If viking. net is not found to exist then the e-mail address is rejected 414 and the customer is invited to enter a different address.

Processing returns to step 411. If viking. net is found to exist the e-mail account is accepted and stored 415 as < address > . The values for the telephone number and e-mail

address are passed to the Telemail Server 416. A Mail account is created 417 on the Telemail server with the telephone number as the mail account name giving an email address of < number > @conversion. com, and the mail account is set to forward to the given e-mail address < address > .

At this point registration has completed successfully 418.

There are many modifications of the embodiment that may be used. For example, if a user tries to send unsolicited e-mails to customers of the Telemail service, in a way which is undesirable for the customer, the user's details can then be added to the database referred to at step 102 in Fig. 1, and this prevents the e-mail being sent.

It is desirable that when a message is forwarded through the SMTP Mail program the sender's address or < FROM > field of the email message is not changed to show the address of the Telemail service. For example a mail

sent by f jones7@saxon. net may appear to be sent by Mail@conversion. com once the forwarding transaction has taken place by the SMTP Mail Program. Therefore it is advisable to write a script to overcome this and replace the < FROM > field with the original sender.

To provide a better response to the user of the Telemail service it is advisable that custom email messages are sent from the Telemail server as replies to various conditions that may occur when a user is using the

Telemail service. Such conditions and replies may be as follows : 1) The user sending the email is blacklisted from using the Telemail service. The SMTP Mail program should identify the user as being blacklisted and send an email message to the FROM address with a text along the following lines:"Sorry you are not authorised to use the Telemail service. This may be because you have been identified as misusing the service, or you

do not meet the Telemail conditions of service." 2) The user sends an email to an address that doesn't exist on the Telemail service.

The SMTP Mail program should identify that the TO field does not contain a valid address or a user that exists, and an email message should be sent to the FROM address with a text along the following lines: "Sorry the following address is wrong, or is not a registered customer of the Telemail service : < address > ." 3) If the Mail server is not operational, the SMTP Mail program will not be able to establish a SMTP connection to the Mail server. An email message should be sent to the FROM address of the original email sender with a text along the following lines.

"Sorry the email has not been sent to < address > the mail server was not available." Thus, the present invention permits an e-mail to be sent with a telephone number of the intended recipient, and converted to an e-mail with the e-mail address of that recipient. The telephone number may be local or international, with the conversion location being arranged to recognise the different possibilities for the form of the number of the intended recipient.

Claims

Claims :

1. A method of routing an e-mail item from a sender to an intended recipient thereof, the method comprising addressing the e-mail item with an e-mail address containing a telephone number of the intended recipient, directing the addressed e-mail item to an e-mail conversion location, receiving the directed e-mail item at the conversion location and converting thereat the email address containing a telephone number of the intended recipient into an e-mail address of the intended recipient, and addressing the e-mail item with said email address of the intended recipient for forwarding thereto.

2. A method of routing an e-mail according to claim 1 wherein, at the conversion location a database for relating said telephone number of the intended recipient to an e-mail address thereof is employed in converting the e-mail address containing said telephone number of the intended recipient into an e-mail address of the intended recipient.

3. A method of routing an e-mail according to claim 1 or 2 wherein, the e-mail item addressed with said e-mail address of the intended recipient is forwarded thereto.

4. A method of routing an e-mail according to claim 2 wherein, at the conversion location the e-mail address containing the telephone number of the intended recipient is not converted into an e-mail address of the intended recipient if the database is unable to relate said telephone number to an e-mail address contained within the database, and in such a case the e-mail item is not forwarded to the intended recipient.

5. A method of routing an e-mail according to claim 2 or claim 3 or claim 4 wherein, at the conversion location if the sender of the e-mail item is identified as being a sender prohibited from using the e-mail routing method the e-mail item is not forwarded to the intended recipient.

6. A method of routing an e-mail according to claim 5 wherein, at the conversion location a database identifying senders prohibited from using the e-mail routing system is employed to check if the sender is so prohibited.

7. A method of routing an e-mail according to claim 4

or claim 5 or claim 6 wherein, the sender is informed that the e-mail item has not been forwarded to the intended recipient when such is the case.

8. A method of routing an e-mail according to any preceding claim wherein, at the conversion location the e-mail item when forwarded is forwarded with information indicating the e-mail address of the sender.

9. A method of routing an e-mail according to any preceding claim wherein, the e-mail item is routed via an Internet.

10. A method of routing an e-mail item substantially as described in any one embodiment herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

11. An e-mail routing system for routing an e-mail item from a sender to an intended recipient thereof, the system comprising: an address converter for receiving said e-mail item addressed with an e-mail address containing a telephone number of the intended recipient, and for converting the e-mail address containing said telephone number of the intended recipient into an e-mail address of the intended recipient; and,

forwarding means for forwarding from the address converter the e-mail item addressed with said e-mail address of the intended recipient.

12. An e-mail routing system according to claim 11 wherein, the address converter contains a database relating said telephone number of the intended recipient to an e-mail address thereof, which database is employed in converting the e-mail address containing said telephone number of the intended recipient into an e-mail address of the intended recipient.

13. An e-mail routing system according to claim 12 wherein, the forwarding means is operable such that the e-mail item is not forwarded to the intended recipient if said database is unable to relate said telephone number to an e-mail address contained within the database.

14. An e-mail routing system according to claim 12 or 13 wherein, the address converter is operable to identify the sender of the e-mail item and the forwarding means is operable to prevent forwarding of the e-mail item to the intended recipient if the sender is identified as being a sender prohibited from using the email routing system.

15. An e-mail routing system according to claim 14 wherein, the address converter contains a database containing information identifying senders prohibited from using the routing system which database is employed by the address converter to check if the sender is so prohibited.

16. An e-mail routing system according to claim 13 or claim 14 or claim 15 wherein, the forwarding means is further operable to inform the sender that the e-mail item has not been forwarded to the intended recipient if such is the case.

17. An e-mail routing system according to any of preceding claims 11 to 16 wherein, the forwarding means is operable to forward the e-mail item with information indicating the e-mail address of the sender.

18. An e-mail routing system according to any of preceding claims 11 to 17 wherein, the routing system further comprises: addressing means for addressing an e-mail item with an e-mail address containing a telephone number of the intended recipient;

directing means for directing the e-mail item from the addressing means to said address converter.

19. An e-mail routing system substantially as described in any one embodiment herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

20. A program for a computer for use in an e-mail routing system for routing an e-mail item from a sender to an intended recipient thereof, the program comprising code for performing the steps of: receiving said e-mail item addressed with an e-mail address containing a telephone number of the intended recipient ; converting the e-mail address containing said telephone number of the intended recipient into an e-mail address of the intended recipient for forwarding to the intended recipient.

21. A program for a computer according to claim 20, wherein, the program contains a database relating said telephone number of the intended recipient to an email address thereof, which database is employed in converting the e-mail address containing said telephone number of the intended recipient into an e-mail address of the intended recipient.

22. A program for a computer according to claim 21 wherein, the program comprises code for preventing the forwarding of the e-mail item to the intended recipient if said database is unable to relate said telephone number to an e-mail address contained within the database.

23. A program for a computer according to claim 21 or 22 wherein, the program comprises code for identifying the sender of the e-mail item and for preventing the forwarding of the e-mail item to the intended recipient if the sender is identified as being a sender prohibited from using the e-mail routing system.

24. A program for a computer according to claim 23 wherein, the program contains a database containing information identifying senders prohibited from using the routing system which database is employed by the program to check if the sender is so prohibited.

25. A program for a computer according to any one of claims 22 to 24 wherein, the comprises code for informing the sender that the e-mail item has not been forwarded to the intended recipient if such is the case.

26. A program for a computer according to any one of preceding claims 20 to 25 wherein, the program comprises code for forwarding the e-mail item with information indicating the e-mail address of the sender.

27. A program for a computer substantially as described in any one embodiment herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

28. A computer program product comprising a recording medium on which a computer program according to any one of claims 20 to 27 is stored.