Method and system to enable email services for mobile devices

• US 7,983,658 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2004
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke KPN NV
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke KPN NV
• Inventors: Grüneberg, Lutz Wolfgang, Ergezinger, Siegfried
• Primary Examiner(s): Karikari; Kwasi
• Application Number:
  US10/565,955
• Publication Number:
  US 20060190530A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,549 Days
• Field of Search: 455410-411, 4554141-4144, 455/415, 455418-420, 455/466, 455 412- 413, 455/461, 455/432.3, 455/550.1, 455/551, 455/552.1, 455557-558, 4555561-5562, 455560-561, 709202-203, 709218-219, 709221-222, 709/228, 715/752
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4523 using lightweight directory access protocol [LDAP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4555 Directories for electronic mail or instant messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/205 Transfer to or from user equipment or user record carrier

Abstract

The invention is a method and a system, which allows the integration of email-enabled devices into a carrier service network without the need for user individual configuration of the devices. A system with an email proxy and a database is provided for handling email requests from a terminal. The network address of the terminal is used to retrieve email configuration settings from the database, whereupon the email proxy is able to communicate with an email server using the retrieved email configuration settings.

Claims

1. A system for handling email requests received from a terminal, for sending email from and receiving email by the terminal, the system comprising:

at least one email proxy and a database, the email proxy being configured to communicate with the database, the database comprising user-specific email communication configuration settings for sending and receiving email to and from an email server on behalf of the terminal,

wherein the email proxy is configured to, responsive to receiving an email request containing non-user-specific email communication configuration settings, detect a unique network address of the terminal and retrieve the user-specific email communication configuration settings from the database using the unique network address of the terminal and, without sending the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings back to the terminal, to communicate with the email server on behalf of the terminal using the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings include a name of the email server, and a username and a password for accessing the email server.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings include a user-specific email address associated with a user of the terminal, and wherein a portion of the received email request identifying a non-user-specific email sender address is replaced with the user-specific email address.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the database comprises a mapping of the unique network address of the terminal to an identity of a user.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein a first database comprises the mapping of the unique network address of the terminal to the identity of the user, and a second database comprises the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein a first email proxy is used to handle email requests for retrieving email messages, and a second email proxy is used to handle email requests for sending email messages.

7. A terminal for use with a system of claim 1,

the terminal being provisioned with non-user-specific email communication configuration settings for sending or retrieving email messages, the non-user-specific email communication configuration settings being the same for each mobile terminal operating within a network and are not associated with a user of the terminal, wherein the mobile terminal is configured to send email messages to or retrieve email messages from an email server on behalf of a unique user, via an email proxy, using only the non-user-specific email communication configuration settings.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the email proxy is further configured to replace the non-user-specific email communication configuration settings with the user-specific email communication configuration settings prior to communicating with the email server.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the email proxy is further configured to retrieve emails from the email server on behalf of the terminal using the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings, and to forward the retrieved emails to the terminal.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the unique network address of the terminal comprises an IP address associated with the terminal.

11. An email retrieval proxy for handling an email retrieval request received from a terminal for receiving email by the terminal,

wherein the email retrieval proxy is configured to detect a unique network address of the terminal and retrieve user-specific email communication configuration settings, for receiving email from an email server on behalf of the terminal, from a database using the unique network address of the terminal without sending the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings back to the terminal, and

wherein the email retrieval proxy is further configured to modify non-user-specific portions of the received email retrieval request using the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings, forward the modified email retrieval request to the email server using the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings, and to receive an email message from the email server and forward the received email message to the terminal.

12. An email sending proxy for handling an email sending request received from a terminal for sending email from the terminal,

wherein the email sending proxy is configured to detect a unique network address of the terminal and retrieve user-specific email communication configuration settings, for sending email to an email server on behalf of the terminal, from a database using the unique network address of the terminal without sending the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings back to the terminal, and

wherein the email sending proxy is further configured to modify non-user-specific portions of the received email sending request using the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings and to forward the modified email sending request to the email server using the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings.

13. A method for handling email requests from a terminal in at least one email proxy, for sending email from and receiving email by the terminal, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an email request from the terminal at the at least one email proxy for sending email from and receiving email by the terminal, the email request comprising non-user-specific email communication configuration settings;

detecting, via the at least one email proxy, a unique network address of the terminal;

retrieving, via the at least one email proxy, user-specific email communication configuration settings, for sending and receiving email to and from an email server on behalf of the terminal, from a database using the unique network address of the terminal without sending the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings back to the terminal; and

communicating, via the at least one email proxy, with the email server using the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings in place of the non-user-specific email communication configuration settings in the email request.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the user-specific email communication configuration settings include a name of the email server, and a username and a password for accessing the email server.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings include a user-specific email address associated with a user of the terminal, and wherein the method further comprises replacing a portion of the received email request identifying a non-user-specific email sender address with the user-specific email address.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the database comprises a mapping of the unique network address of the terminal to an identity of a user.

17. The method according to claim 16, the method comprising the steps of retrieving from a first database information about the mapping of the unique network address of the terminal to the identity of the user;

and

retrieving, from a second database, the user-specific email communication configuration settings.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein a first email proxy is used to handle email requests for retrieving email messages, and a second email proxy is used to handle email requests for sending email messages.

19. The method according to claim 13, the method further comprising the steps of:

retrieving emails from the email server on behalf of the terminal using the retrieved user-specific email communication configuration settings, and forwarding the retrieved emails to the terminal.

20. The method according to claim 13, wherein the unique network address of the terminal comprises an IP address associated with the terminal.