Apparatus and method for handling electronic mail
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- determining an identity of a sender of an incoming e-mail;
determining a cumulative penalty count value associated with said identity, wherein determining said cumulative penalty count value comprises assessing a penalty count value to said identity for an undesirable activity performed by the sender;
retrieving a system overall resource usage status associated with a communication device processing the incoming e-mail; and
processing the incoming e-mail on the basis of said cumulative penalty count value and said system overall resource usage status.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A mail transfer agent adapted for determining the disposition of incoming e-mail from a sender includes a penalty count filter module (20 which functions on the basis of current communication system resource usage, such as the number of concurrent TCP connections being maintained, and penalty counts assigned for cumulative undesirable sender activity such as sending large e-mail files. The penalty count filter module can operate in a selective-rejection state accepting e-mail from senders without a penalty count and randomly accepting other e-mail, and in a random-rejection state rejecting all e-mail from senders with a penalty count and randomly rejecting other e-mail. The rejection rates can be increased or decreased in response to a detected increase or decrease in the usage of system resources.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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determining an identity of a sender of an incoming e-mail; determining a cumulative penalty count value associated with said identity, wherein determining said cumulative penalty count value comprises assessing a penalty count value to said identity for an undesirable activity performed by the sender; retrieving a system overall resource usage status associated with a communication device processing the incoming e-mail; and processing the incoming e-mail on the basis of said cumulative penalty count value and said system overall resource usage status. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 25, 26)
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12. A device comprising:
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a processor; and memory storing machine readable instructions comprising a penalty count filter module that, when executed by the processor, configure the device to perform; identifying a sender of an incoming e-mail; assigning a penalty count to the sender, said penalty count being a function of previous undesirable activity associated with the sender; determining an overall resource usage value for said device in receiving e-mail; specifying an operating state for the penalty count filter module, said operating state being a function of said overall resource usage value; and disposing of the incoming e-mail on the basis of said sender penalty count and said operating state, by either accepting or rejecting the e-mail. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 27, 28)
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16. A device comprising:
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a sender penalty count data structure, stored in a memory of the device, configured to store a current penalty count value associated with a sender of an incoming email, wherein said current penalty count value is based at least in part on previous undesirable activity performed by the sender; a system resource usage status file, stored in the memory, configured to store a current usage status value for device e-mail processing resources; and an accept/reject filter, stored in the memory, configured to dispose of the incoming e-mail on the basis of said penalty count value and said usage status value. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. A method comprising:
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identifying an e-mail sender of an incoming e-mail by determining a sender IP address; obtaining a previous sender penalty count value calculated for said sender IP address, wherein said previous sender penalty count value is based at least in part on previous undesirable activity performed by the sender; and accepting or rejecting the incoming e-mail based on said previous sender penalty count value. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification