Method and system for scanning electronic mail to detect and eliminate computer viruses using a group of email-scanning servers and a recipient's email gateway
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system, comprising:
- a recipient'"'"'s email gateway connected to a network and configured to receive email messages from the network; and
a group of email-scanning servers comprising one or more email scanning servers, each of the email-scanning servers configured with anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses, the group of email scanning servers connected to the network, wherein when the recipient'"'"'s email gateway receives an email message from the network, the email message is transmitted to the group of email-scanning servers to generate a clean email message using the anti-virus software, and wherein the clean email message is transmitted by the group of email-scanning servers to the recipient'"'"'s email gateway.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for scanning email messages to detect and eliminate viruses is disclosed. A recipient'"'"'s email gateway receives email messages from a network. The email messages are transmitted by the recipient'"'"'s email gateway to a group of email scannning servers connected to the network. The group of email-scanning servers comprises one or more email-scanning servers. Each of the email-scanning servers includes one or more anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses from the email messages to generate clean email messages. The clean email messages are transmitted by the group of email-scanning servers to the recipient'"'"'s email gateway.
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Citations
58 Claims
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1. A system, comprising:
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a recipient'"'"'s email gateway connected to a network and configured to receive email messages from the network; and
a group of email-scanning servers comprising one or more email scanning servers, each of the email-scanning servers configured with anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses, the group of email scanning servers connected to the network, wherein when the recipient'"'"'s email gateway receives an email message from the network, the email message is transmitted to the group of email-scanning servers to generate a clean email message using the anti-virus software, and wherein the clean email message is transmitted by the group of email-scanning servers to the recipient'"'"'s email gateway. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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12. A method, comprising:
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receiving incoming email messages from a network;
transmitting the incoming email messages to a group of email scanning servers comprising one or more email-scanning servers, the group of scanning servers connected to the network, each of the email-scanning servers configured with one or more anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses, wherein the incoming email messages are scanned and cleaned by the group of email-scanning servers to generate clean email messages; and
receiving the clean email messages from the group of email scanning servers.
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20. A computer readable medium containing executable instructions which, when executed in a processing system, causes the processing system to perform the steps of a method comprising:
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receiving incoming email messages from a network;
transmitting the incoming email messages to a group of email scanning servers comprising one or more email-scanning servers, the group of scanning servers connected to the network, each of the email-scanning servers configured with one or more anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses, wherein the incoming email messages are scanned and cleaned by the group of email-scanning servers to generate clean email messages; and
receiving the clean email messages from the group of email scanning servers. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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28. A system, comprising:
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a service provider'"'"'s email server connected to a network and configured to receive email messages from the network;
a recipient'"'"'s email gateway coupled with the service provider'"'"'s email server and connected to the network, the recipient'"'"'s email gateway configured to retrieve the email messages from the service provider'"'"'s email server at predetermined time periods; and
a group of email-scanning servers comprising one or more email scanning servers, each of the email-scanning servers includes anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses, the group of email-scanning servers connected to the network, wherein when the recipient'"'"'s email gateway retrieves the email messages from the service provider'"'"'s email server, the email messages are transmitted to the group of email-scanning servers to generate clean email messages.
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38. A method, comprising:
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retrieving incoming email messages from a service provider'"'"'s email server at predetermined time intervals, the service provider'"'"'s email server receiving the incoming email messages from a network;
transmitting the incoming email messages to a group of email scanning servers comprising one or more email-scanning servers, the group of scanning servers connected to the network, each of the email-scanning servers includes one or more anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses, wherein the incoming email messages are scanned and cleaned by the group of emailed-scanning servers to generate clean email messages; and
receiving the clean email messages from the group of email scanning servers.
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44. A system, comprising:
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a sender'"'"'s email server connected to a network;
a group of email-scanning servers comprising one or more email scanning servers, each of the email-scanning servers includes one or more anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses, the group of email-scanning servers connected to the network, the sender'"'"'s email gateway transmitting the email messages to the group of email-scanning servers to scan and clean the email messages to generate clean email messages, wherein the clean email messages are stored in an email queue coupled with the group of email-scanning servers; and
a recipient'"'"'s email gateway connected to the network, the recipient'"'"'s email gateway configured to send forward requests to the group of email-scanning servers at predetermined time intervals, wherein when the forward requests are received, the clean email messages are transmitted from the email queue to the recipient'"'"'s email gateway. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A method, comprising:
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sending email messages from a sender'"'"'s email server to a group of email-scanning servers using a network, the group of email scanning servers comprising one or more email scanning servers having one or more anti-virus software to scan and clean viruses;
scanning and cleaning the email messages to generate clean email messages;
storing the clean email messages in an email queue; and
responsive to receiving forward requests from a recipient'"'"'s email gateway, transmitting the clean email messages from the email queue to a recipient'"'"'s email gateway. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58)
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Specification