Efficient new e-mail discovery
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the method comprising:
- requesting information regarding a most recently assigned unique identifier corresponding to a mail client from said mail server;
comparing said most recently assigned unique identifier to a unique identifier associated with a most recently received mail item at said mail client; and
retrieving new mail for said mail client from the mail server if said most recently assigned unique identifier is not equal to said unique identifier associated with said most recently received mail item.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
New e-mail may be identified in an efficient manner in order to speed polling times by utilizing the unique identifiers assigned to e-mails. A unique identifier for the most recently received mail for the mail client or the predicted value for such may be compared with the last unique identifier to be assigned by the mail server. If the identifiers are equal, then no new messages have been received and the mail client need not download any headers, which saves a significant amount of bandwidth. When the identifiers are not equal, the mail client need only download the new headers, which also saves bandwidth.
-
Citations
43 Claims
-
1. A method for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the method comprising:
-
requesting information regarding a most recently assigned unique identifier corresponding to a mail client from said mail server;
comparing said most recently assigned unique identifier to a unique identifier associated with a most recently received mail item at said mail client; and
retrieving new mail for said mail client from the mail server if said most recently assigned unique identifier is not equal to said unique identifier associated with said most recently received mail item. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. A method for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the method comprising:
-
requesting a value of a next unique identifier to be assigned corresponding to a mail client from said mail server;
comparing a predicted most recently assigned unique identifier to a unique identifier associated with a most recently received mail item at said mail client, wherein said predicted most recently assigned unique identifier is based on said value; and
retrieving new mail for said mail client from the mail server if said predicted most recently assigned unique identifier is not equal to said unique identifier associated with said most recently received mail item. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. An apparatus for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the apparatus comprising:
-
a most recently assigned unique identifier server information requester;
a most recently assigned unique identifier-to-unique identifier associated with a client most recently received mail item comparer coupled to said most recently assigned unique identifier server information requester; and
a new mail retriever coupled to said most recently assigned unique identifier-to-unique identifier associated with a client most recently received mail item comparer. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. An apparatus for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the apparatus comprising:
-
a server next unique identifier to be assigned value requester;
a server next unique identifier to be assigned-to-unique identifier associated with a client most recently received mail item comparer coupled to said server next unique identifier to be assigned value requester; and
a new mail retriever coupled to said server next unique identifier to be assigned-to-unique identifier associated with a client most recently received mail item comparer. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. An apparatus for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the apparatus comprising:
-
means for requesting information regarding a most recently assigned unique identifier corresponding to a mail client from said mail server;
means for comparing said most recently assigned unique identifier to a unique identifier associated with a most recently received mail item at said mail client; and
means for retrieving new mail for said mail client from the mail server if said most recently assigned unique identifier is not equal to said unique identifier associated with said most recently received mail item. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
-
-
34. An apparatus for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the apparatus comprising:
-
means for requesting a value of a next unique identifier to be assigned corresponding to a mail client from said mail server;
means for comparing a predicted most recently assigned unique identifier to a unique identifier associated with a most recently received mail item at said mail client, wherein said predicted most recently assigned unique identifier is based on said value; and
means for retrieving new mail for said mail client from the mail server if said predicted most recently assigned unique identifier is not equal to said unique identifier associated with said most recently received mail item. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
-
-
42. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the method comprising:
-
requesting information regarding a most recently assigned unique identifier corresponding to a mail client from said mail server;
comparing said most recently assigned unique identifier to a unique identifier associated with a most recently received mail item at said mail client; and
retrieving new mail for said mail client from the mail server if said most recently assigned unique identifier is not equal to said unique identifier associated with said most recently received mail item.
-
-
43. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for efficiently receiving notification of new e-mail from a mail server, the method comprising:
-
requesting a value of a next unique identifier to be assigned corresponding to a mail client from said mail server;
comparing a predicted most recently assigned unique identifier to a unique identifier associated with a most recently received mail item at said mail client, wherein said predicted most recently assigned unique identifier is based on said value; and
retrieving new mail for said mail client from the mail server if said predicted most recently assigned unique identifier is not equal to said unique identifier associated with said most recently received mail item.
-
Specification