EMAIL SERVER SYSTEM AND METHOD
First Claim
1. An email system comprising:
- a plurality of email servers, each of said email servers being connected to each other of said email servers via a data communications network, each of said email servers being operable to communicate with the others of said email servers and being further operable to process email received from and/or sent to said data communications network in accordance with a configuration data set stored on each server;
two or more of said email servers being further selectable to act as a primary email server and receive and effect changes, from an administrator, for the configuration data set stored on a selected one of the email servers,wherein, in response to changes to the configuration data set of said selected email server, said selected email server to announce that the configuration data set stored on said selected email server has been changed to the others of the email servers connected by the network and, in response to requests from email servers, providing the changes to the configuration data set to each requesting email server for storage and use thereon.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An email system comprises a plurality of email servers connected by a data communications network. The email system avoids single points of failure by employing multiple email servers which self configure, without requiring dedicated servers, through self addressing and discovery and announcement protocols. An email server can act as a primary email server by executing an administration tool allowing an administrator to modify the configuration data set which the email servers utilize, and the primary email server will then announce the resulting change in the version level of the configuration data set to other email servers. Each email server will then determine and request any needed updates to its respective configuration data set from the primary email server or another email server.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1. An email system comprising:
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a plurality of email servers, each of said email servers being connected to each other of said email servers via a data communications network, each of said email servers being operable to communicate with the others of said email servers and being further operable to process email received from and/or sent to said data communications network in accordance with a configuration data set stored on each server; two or more of said email servers being further selectable to act as a primary email server and receive and effect changes, from an administrator, for the configuration data set stored on a selected one of the email servers, wherein, in response to changes to the configuration data set of said selected email server, said selected email server to announce that the configuration data set stored on said selected email server has been changed to the others of the email servers connected by the network and, in response to requests from email servers, providing the changes to the configuration data set to each requesting email server for storage and use thereon. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Specification