Mail distributing apparatus, program and mail transmitting method capable of shortening average wait time for completing transmission of mails

• US 20060010216A1
• Filed: 05/26/2005
• Published: 01/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Techfirm Inc.
• Original Assignee: Techfirm Inc.
• Inventors: Tsutsui, Yuichiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,660,858 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

There is provided a mail distributing apparatus, a program and a mail transmitting method capable of shortening an average wait time for completing transmission of mails. The mail distributing apparatus has a transmission recording section for recording the date and time when a mail has been successfully transmitted last per mailing address, an address selecting section for selecting the addresses to which the mails have been successfully transmitted last on the date and time within a predetermined period by making reference to the transmission recording section when it is commanded to distribute mails to a plurality of addresses and a transmitting section for transmitting the mails to the addresses selected by the address selecting section at first and then transmitting the mails to the other addresses.

Claims

1. A mail distributing apparatus, comprising:

a transmission recording section for recording the date and time when a mail has been successfully transmitted last per mailing address;

an address selecting section for selecting the addresses to which the mails have been successfully transmitted last on the date and time within a predetermined period by making reference to said transmission recording section when it is commanded to distribute mails to a plurality of addresses; and

a transmitting section for transmitting the mails to the addresses selected by said address selecting section at first and then transmitting the mails to the other addresses.

2. The mail distributing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said transmitting section transmits the mails to the other addresses at periods lower than that of the selected addresses.

3. The mail distributing apparatus as set forth in claim 2, further comprising a reply time recording section for recording a time taken to receive a fail message since when the mail has been transmitted when it receives the fail message indicating that the mail has not been transmitted to the address;

and

said transmitting section transmitting the mails so that a number of mails transmitted within a reply time recorded in said reply time recording section becomes equal to or less than a number set in advance.

4. The mail distributing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a fail rate measuring section for measuring a fail rate which is a ratio of a number of received fail messages to the number of mails transmitted to the other addresses;

and

said transmitting section determining periods for transmitting mails to the addresses based on the fail rate and the reply time so that the number of fail messages notified within the reply time recorded in said reply time recording section becomes equal to or less than a value set in advance.

5. The mail distributing apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein said transmitting section lowers the mail transmitting periods when said mail distributing apparatus receives the fail messages at rate higher than the fail rate.

6. The mail distributing apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein said transmitting section predicts the time when the distribution of the mail ends based on the fail rate and informs a user of that.

7. The mail distributing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said transmitting section lowers the mail transmitting periods upon receiving the fail messages.

8. A program for operating a mail distributing apparatus as:

transmission recording means for recording the date and time when a mail has been successfully transmitted last per mailing address;

address selecting means for selecting the addresses to which the mails have been successfully transmitted last on the date and time within a predetermined period by making reference to the transmission recording means when it is commanded to distribute mails to a plurality of addresses; and

transmitting means for transmitting the mails to the addresses selected by the address selecting means at first and then transmitting the mail to the other addresses.

9. The program as set forth in claim 8, wherein said transmission means transmits the mails to the other addresses at periods lower than that of the selected addresses.

10. The program as set forth in claim 9, further comprising a reply time recording means for recording a time taken to receive a fail message since when the mail has been transmitted when said mail distributing apparatus receives the fail message indicating that the mail has not been transmitted to the address;

and

said transmission means transmitting the mails so that a number of mails transmitted within a reply time recorded in said reply time recording means becomes equal to or less than a number set in advance.

11. The program as set forth in claim 8, further comprising a fail rate measuring means for measuring a fail rate which is a ratio of a number of received fail messages to the number of mails transmitted to the other addresses;

and

said transmission means determining periods for transmitting mails to the addresses based on the fail rate and the reply time so that the number of fail messages notified within the reply time recorded in said reply time recording means becomes equal to or less than a value set in advance.

12. The program as set forth in claim 8, wherein said transmission means lowers the mail transmitting period when said mail distributing apparatus receives the fail messages at rate higher than the fail rate.

13. The program as set forth in claim 11, wherein said transmission means predicts the time when the distribution of mails ends based on the fail rate and informs a user of that.

14. A mail transmission method, comprising:

a transmission recording step for recording the date and time when a mail has been successfully transmitted last per mailing address;

an address selecting step for selecting the addresses to which the mails have been successfully transmitted last on the date and time within a predetermined period by making reference to the transmission recording section when it is commanded to distribute mails to a plurality of addresses; and

a transmitting step for transmitting the mails to the addresses selected by the address selecting section at first and then transmitting the mails to the other addresses.

15. The mail transmission method as set forth in claim 14, wherein the mails are transmitted to the other addresses at periods lower than that of the selected addresses in the transmission step.

16. The mail transmission method as set forth in claim 15, further comprising a reply time recording step for recording a time taken to receive a fail message since when the mail has been transmitted when said mail distributing apparatus receives the fail messages indicating that the mail has not been transmitted to the address;

and

the mails are transmitted in the transmission step so that a number of mails transmitted within a reply time recorded in said reply time recording step becomes equal to or less than a number set in advance.

17. The mail transmission method as set forth in claim 16, wherein a period for transmitting mails to the other addresses is determined based on the fail rate and the reply time in the transmission step so that the number of fail messages notified within the reply time recorded in said reply time recording step becomes equal to or less than a value set in advance.

18. The mail transmission method as set forth in claim 17, wherein the mail transmitting period is lowered in the transmission step when said mail distributing apparatus receives the fail messages at rate higher than the fail rate.

19. The mail transmission method as set forth in claim 17, wherein the time when the distribution of mails ends is predicted based on the fail rate and that is informed to a user in the transmission step.