Address Couplet Communication Filtering

• US 20110099291A1
• Filed: 10/23/2009
• Published: 04/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Kemp, Michael, O'Reirdan, Michael John
• Granted Patent: US 8,463,938 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and system are disclosed that provide an approved address couplet listing for communication handling. An inbound communication including sender and recipient field entries may be compared as a pair or couplet against the listing to determine whether the inbound communication should be discarded, subjected to additional (spam related) processing, or forwarded for storage or delivery purposes. The comparison may take place in conjunction with one or more hashing functions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, an inbound communication, the inbound communication including information identifying a sender of the communication and an intended recipient of the communication;

generating an inbound communication sender/recipient couplet using information from the received communication; and

comparing the inbound communication couplet to a predefined list of sender/recipient couplets to determine how to route the inbound communication.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the comparison of the inbound communication couplet with the predefined generates a match; and

determining whether the matching predefined couplet includes one or more control extensions.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising forwarding the inbound communication to an extension conduit service in response to determining that the matching predefined couplet includes an extension command.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the extension conduit service determining how the inbound communication should be routed based on routing criteria different from the sender/recipient address.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the routing criteria are based on time of day.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the extension command is a command requiring that the inbound communication be forwarded to another address for approval prior to forwarding the communication to an inbox of the recipient identified in the inbound communication.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the extension command identifies one or more receiving devices for receiving the inbound communication.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the matching predefined couplet contains a plurality of control extensions, and the method further comprises combining extension processing for the plurality of extensions to determine routing of the inbound communication.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the inbound communication couplet matches a predefined list of sender/recipient couplets;

performing anti-abuse processing on the inbound communication if there is no match in the list of sender/recipient couplets; and

forwarding the inbound communication to an inbox of the recipient identified in the communication, without performing the anti-abuse processing, if there is a match in the list of sender/recipient couplets.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing further comprises comparing hashed values of the inbound communication couplet with hashed values of the couplets in the predefined list of couplets.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of sender/recipient couplets includes couplets having wildcard designators for user names or domain names.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the couplets includes an indication of a trusted third party, and wherein the method further comprises granting the trusted third party access privileges to edit the recipient'"'"'s couplet for the third party.

13. A communication apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable medium, storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the following;

store a list of hashed sender and recipient address couplet pairs; and

use the stored list of hashed sender and recipient address couplet pairs to route communications arriving at the apparatus.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the hashed sender and recipient address couplet pairs further include control extension commands, and wherein the computer-readable medium further stores instructions for applying those extension commands in routing incoming communications.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein one of the hashed sender and recipient address couplet pairs includes a plurality of control extensions, and wherein the computer-readable medium further stores instructions for combining the plurality of control extensions, and using the combined control extensions in routing incoming communications.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein one of the extension commands includes third party couplet editing authorization, permitting an identified third party to modify a recipient'"'"'s couplet involving the identified third party.

17. A communication method comprising:

receiving at a computing device, from a user, an identification of a sender from whom communications to the user are to be permitted;

generating a hashed sender and recipient couplet value using address information for the user and the identified sender; and

using the hashed couplet value to route incoming communications.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the receiving further comprises:

displaying, on a display device of the computing device, a prior incoming message from a prior sender; and

displaying an option to the user to automatically generate a couplet for the prior sender.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the receiving further comprises receiving approval from the user to automatically scan an address book of the user.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving, from the user, an identification of a third party to whom editing privileges are to be extended, wherein the editing privileges extend to editing of the user'"'"'s couplet for that third party.