Electronic mail system employing a low bandwidth link for e-mail notifications
First Claim
1. An e-mail notification and messaging system for providing e-mail messages and e-mail notifications from an e-mail service system to local client devices of a plurality of users, the system comprising:
- an e-mail service system configured to receive e-mail messages for a plurality of users and configured to provide e-mail notifications and e-mail messages to the local client devices of the plurality of users;
a given local client device from among the local client devices that is configured to receive e-mail notifications from the e-mail service system and that is configured to retrieve e-mail messages from the e-mail service system;
a first communications link over which the local client device retrieves e-mail messages from the e-mail service system; and
a second communications link separate from the first communications link over which the e-mail service system provides e-mail notifications to the local client device, wherein the second communications link is a low bandwidth communications link.
17 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An e-mail notification system is provided. The e-mail notification system has a remote e-mail service system and at least one local client device. The e-mail service system is connected to the local client device via a primary communications link, and a secondary relatively low-bandwidth continuous communications link. The primary communications link is preferably bidirectional and has a relatively high bandwidth. Because such links are relatively costly, the primary communications link is not used continuously. The secondary communications link is preferably a low cost unidirectional continuous link. The e-mail service system receives e-mail messages for a user and sends e-mail notifications over the secondary communications link. The local client device generates an appropriate indicator whenever an e-mail notification is received. The local client device may automatically retrieve e-mail messages for the user from the remote e-mail service system via the primary communications link or may provide the user with the opportunity to manually obtain e-mail messages from the remote e-mail service system over the primary communications link.
165 Citations
104 Claims
-
1. An e-mail notification and messaging system for providing e-mail messages and e-mail notifications from an e-mail service system to local client devices of a plurality of users, the system comprising:
-
an e-mail service system configured to receive e-mail messages for a plurality of users and configured to provide e-mail notifications and e-mail messages to the local client devices of the plurality of users;
a given local client device from among the local client devices that is configured to receive e-mail notifications from the e-mail service system and that is configured to retrieve e-mail messages from the e-mail service system;
a first communications link over which the local client device retrieves e-mail messages from the e-mail service system; and
a second communications link separate from the first communications link over which the e-mail service system provides e-mail notifications to the local client device, wherein the second communications link is a low bandwidth communications link. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
-
-
55. A method for providing e-mail messages from an e-mail service system to local client devices of a plurality of users over a first communications link and providing e-mail notifications from the e-mail service system to the local client devices over a second communications link, the method comprising the steps of:
-
receiving e-mail messages at the e-mail service system;
providing e-mail notifications from the e-mail service system to a given local client device from among the local client devices over the second communications link;
receiving the e-mail notifications at the given local client device from the e-mail service system over the second communications link, wherein the second communications link is a low bandwidth communications link; and
retrieving e-mail messages at the given local client device from the e-mail service system over the first communications link. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104)
-
Specification