HONORING USER PREFERENCES IN EMAIL SYSTEMS

• US 20100174788A1
• Filed: 01/07/2009
• Published: 07/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Walter, Jason D., Gillum, Eliot C., Bidgoli, Mehrdad, Vitaldevara, Krishna C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,195,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

In a distributed email system, user preferences respected more effectively by presenting messages marked for deletion to secondary messaging servers having access to user preferences. Messages marked for deletion by inbound servers are presented to secondary level servers having access to user white lists and the choice of whether to delete the suspect message is made by the secondary server.

Claims

1. A method for receiving email in an email system having an inbound server and at least one secondary server, the method comprising:

receiving a message at the inbound server;

determining at the inbound server whether the message should not be delivered to the secondary server and if so, marking the message for deletion;

communicating with the secondary server to determine whether the secondary server wishes to receive the message marked for deletion by the inbound server; and

receiving an indication from the secondary server concerning whether the secondary server wishes to receive the message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of marking the message comprises inserting a to-be-deleted flag in a MAIL FROM, RCPT TO, or header of a message.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of communicating includes communicating a portion of the message information to the secondary server which includes the to-be-deleted marking.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the portion of the message information includes one or more senders of the message and wherein the secondary server determines that the MAIL FROM field matches a user safe list.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving includes receiving one of an SMTP accept message or an SMTP error message.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving includes receiving an indication to deliver the message when the secondary server determines that at least a portion of the message meets a user defined criterion for a message the user desires to receive.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining includes applying a spam rating for the message and if the spam rating exceeds a threshold, marking the message for deletion.

15. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of communicating includes communicating a portion of the message information to the secondary server which includes the marked status and at least a FROM field of the message.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the step of determining includes comparing the MAIL FROM field to the user preferences, the user preferences comprising at least one of user defined acceptable subject lines, acceptable signatures, acceptable domains, acceptable email addresses, acceptable key words, or a spam filter aggressiveness setting.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the step of marking the message comprises inserting a to-be-deleted flag in the MAIL FROM command of SMTP interaction.

8. A method for storing email in an email system having an inbound server communicating with sending message servers, and a secondary storage server, comprising:

receiving a request to connect to the inbound message server;

filtering the message at the inbound server to determine whether to reject the message and if so, marking the message for deletion;

communicating information concerning the message to the secondary server to determine whether the secondary server desires to receive the message marked for deletion;

receiving an acceptance from secondary server for the message; and

delivering the message from the inbound server to the secondary server.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of determining includes applying a spam rating for the message and if the spam rating exceeds a threshold, marking the message for deletion.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of communicating includes communicating a portion of the message information to the secondary server which includes the marking.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of receiving includes receiving an indication to deliver the message when the secondary server determines that at least a portion of the message meets a per user defined criterion for a message.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of receiving includes receiving one of an SMTP accept message or an SMTP error message.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the step of marking the message comprises inserting a to-be-deleted flag in a MAIL FROM command of SMTP interaction.

14. A computer implemented method for honoring user safe lists in an email messaging system including at least an inbound server and at least one secondary server, the secondary server having access to user preferences, the method comprising:

receiving a message at the inbound server;

determining a spam rating for the message at the inbound server, and if the spam rating exceeds a threshold, marking the message for deletion;

communicating a marked status to the secondary server along with message information;

determining, at the secondary server, whether to accept the message by comparing the message information to at least the user preferences;

communicating an indication between the secondary server and the inbound server to transmit the message to the secondary server.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the step of communicating includes sending one of an SMTP accept message or an SMTP error message.

19. The method of claim 14 further including the step of determining at the inbound server whether the message includes objectionable links, and if so, marking the message for deletion.

20. The method of claim 14 further including the step of delivering the message data after receiving said indication.