Internet server and method for providing access to internet e-mail and internet web pages

• US 6,424,828 B1
• Filed: 06/03/1999
• Issued: 07/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Optis Wireless Technology, LLC (Brevet Capital)
• Original Assignee: Ericsson, Inc. (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Ahluwalia, Inderpreet S., Collins, William H., Cubbage, Aaron D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, DANH C
• Application Number:
  US09/325,326
• Time in Patent Office: 1,146 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412, 455/466, 455/445, 709/227, 709/204, 709/206, 379/90.01, 379/93.25
• US Class Current: 455/412.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

An Internet server allows a cellular telephone to acquire a short messaging service (SMS) address for an Internet station. A user of the cellular telephone generates a preliminary message including an Internet e-mail address for the Internet station. The preliminary message is sent to the Internet server using the SMS. The Internet server generates a reply message having the Internet station e-mail address in a sender address field. The reply message, when sent to the cellular telephone, prompts the Internet gateway to supply the SMS address for the Internet station to the cellular telephone. Further, the Internet server processes an initial message from the cellular telephone to at least one Internet station. The initial message includes a communication for an Internet station, a first line of the communication including the Internet e-mail address for the Internet station. The server generates a message having the Internet e-mail address of the Internet station in a recipient address field, and including the communication, and sends the message to the Internet station. The Internet server additionally processes an e-mail message from an Internet station to the cellular telephone, where the e-mail message includes a communication greater than a maximum communication length imposed by the SMS. The server divides the communication into a plurality of portions less than the maximum communication length. The server generates a plurality of messages, where each message includes one of the portions of the communication. The messages are sent by the server to the cellular telephone. Further, the Internet server provides the cellular telephone access to an Internet web page. The cellular telephone generates a request message including an Internet web page address, and sends the request message to the server. The server accesses the Internet web page and generates a message to the cellular telephone, the message including a content of the Internet web page.

Claims

1. A method of acquiring for a cellular telephone a messaging service address for an Internet station, using an Internet server and a cellular communications system including the cellular telephone and a messaging service e-mail utility, where the messaging service address for the Internet station is not available, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a preliminary message at the cellular telephone, the preliminary message having a messaging service address of the server in a recipient address field and including an e-mail address of the Internet station;

sending the preliminary message to the server;

extracting the e-mail address of the Internet station from the preliminary message at the server;

generating a reply message to the cellular telephone at the server, the reply message having the e-mail address of the Internet station in a sender address field; and

sending the reply message from the server to the cellular telephone.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating the preliminary message includes placing only the e-mail address of the Internet station in the preliminary message.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sending the preliminary message further includes the steps of:

receiving the preliminary message at a mobile service provider;

forwarding the preliminary message from the mobile service provider to an Internet e-mail gateway; and

forwarding the preliminary message from the Internet e-mail gateway to the server.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sending the reply message further comprises the steps of:

receiving the reply message at an Internet e-mail gateway;

determining the messaging service address of the Internet station at the Internet e-mail gateway;

placing the messaging service address of the Internet station into the sender address field of the reply message at the Internet e-mail gateway;

forwarding the reply message to a mobile service provider; and

delivering the reply message from the mobile service provider to the cellular telephone.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the Internet gateway includes a messaging service lookup table having a first column of e-mail addresses and a second column of corresponding messaging service addresses, and the step of determining the messaging service address includes:

searching the first column for the e-mail address of the Internet station, and

if the e-mail address of the Internet station is located in the first column, placing the corresponding messaging system address from the second column in the sender address field of the reply message, and

if the e-mail address of the Internet station is not located, adding the e-mail address of the Internet station to the first column, generating the messaging service address for the e-mail address of the Internet station, and placing the generated messaging service address in the second column at a location corresponding to the e-mail address of the Internet station in the first column and in the sender address field of the reply message.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein

the step of generating the preliminary message includes placing a plurality of e-mail addresses for Internet stations into the preliminary message,

the step of extracting the e-mail address further includes the step of extracting each of the e-mail addresses for Internet stations from the preliminary message,

the step of generating the reply message includes generating reply messages for each of the e-mail addresses for Internet stations, each reply message having a corresponding e-mail address for the Internet station in the sender address field, and

the step of sending the reply message further includes the step of sending each reply messages to the cellular telephone.

7. An Internet server for use with a cellular communications system including a cellular telephone and a messaging service e-mail utility, for acquiring for the cellular telephone a messaging service address of an Internet station, where the messaging service address for the Internet station is not available, the cellular telephone generating a preliminary message having a messaging service address of the server in a recipient address field and including an e-mail address of the Internet station, the Internet server comprising:

a communications interface for receiving the preliminary message;

an address extractor coupled to the communications interface for extracting the e-mail address of the Internet station from the preliminary message;

an e-mail generator coupled to the address extractor for generating a reply message having the e-mail address of the Internet station in a sender address field and an e-mail address for the cellular telephone in the recipient address field; and

an e-mail dispatcher coupled to the e-mail generator and the communications interface for sending the reply message to the cellular telephone.

8. A method of accessing an Internet web page having an Internet web page address from a cellular telephone, using an Internet server and a communications system including the cellular telephone and a messaging service e-mail utility, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a request message at the cellular telephone, the request message including a messaging service address of the server in a recipient address field and the Internet web page address;

sending the request message to the server;

extracting the Internet web page address from the request message at the server;

accessing the Internet web page at the server using the Internet web page address;

receiving a content of the Internet web page at the server;

determining an e-mail address of the cellular telephone at the server;

generating a message at the server, the message including the e-mail address of the cellular telephone in the recipient address field and the content of the Internet web page; and

sending the message to the cellular telephone.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the content of the Internet web page is greater than a maximum allowable message length for the e-mail utility, and

the step of generating the message includes dividing the content of the Internet web page into a plurality of portions, each portion being less than the maximum allowable message length, and generating a plurality of messages, each including one of the portions of the content and having the e-mail address of the cellular telephone in the recipient address field, and

the step of sending the message includes sending the plurality of messages to the cellular telephone.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of sending the plurality of messages includes sending a first message in response to the request message, and waiting for an additional request message from the cellular telephone before sending an additional message to the cellular telephone.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of storing the message in a storage device.

12. An Internet server for use with a communication system including a cellular telephone and a messaging service e-mail utility, for providing the cellular telephone access to an Internet web page having an Internet web page address, the cellular telephone sending a request message to the server including the Internet web page address, the server comprising:

a communications interface for receiving the request message and accessing the Internet web page;

an address extractor coupled to the communications interface for extracting the Internet web page address from the request message;

an Internet accessor coupled to the address extractor and the communications interface for accessing the Internet web page address and receiving a content of the Internet web page;

an e-mail generator coupled to the Internet accessor for generating a message, the message including an e-mail address of the cellular telephone and the content of the Internet web page; and

an e-mail dispatcher coupled to the e-mail generator and the communications interface for sending the message to the cellular telephone.

13. The server of claim 12 wherein the content of the Internet web page is greater than a maximum allowable message length and further comprising a divider coupled to the Internet accessor and the e-mail generator for dividing the content into a plurality of portions, each of the portions being less than the maximum allowable message length, and wherein

the e-mail generator generates a plurality of messages, each of the messages including the e-mail address of the cellular telephone and one of the portions of the content, and

the e-mail dispatcher sends at least one of the plurality of messages to the cellular telephone.

14. The server of claim 12 further comprising a storage device coupled to the Internet accessor for storing the content of the Internet web page.

15. The server of claim 12 further comprising a storage device coupled to the e-mail generator for storing the message.

16. A method for processing and delivering an e-mail message from an Internet Station to a cellular telephone using an Internet server and a communication system including the cellular telephone and a messaging service e-mail utility, the e-mail message being greater than a maximum allowable message length for the e-mail utility, the method comprising:

receiving the e-mail message from the Internet Station at the server, the e-mail message having a server e-mail address of the cellular telephone in a recipient address field and a communication;

determining an e-mail address of the cellular telephone at the server;

dividing the communication into a plurality of portions at the server, each portion being less than the maximum allowable message length;

generating a plurality of messages, each message having the e-mail address of the cellular telephone in the recipient address field and including one of the portions of the communication; and

sending the messages to the cellular telephone,

wherein the server includes a cellular telephone lookup table having a first column including an server e-mail addresses and a second column including e-mail addresses of cellular telephones corresponding to the server e-mail addresses of the first column, wherein the step of determining the e-mail address of the cellular telephone includes searching the first column for the server e-mail address of the cellular telephone and selecting the corresponding e-mail address of the cellular telephone from the second column when the server e-mail address of the cellular telephone is located.