Methods and apparatus for providing a virtual host in electronic messaging servers
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for defining a virtual domain in an electronic messaging system supporting a plurality of users, comprising:
- defining a virtual domain node corresponding to a real domain name server in a hierarchically organized directory wherein the hierarchically organized directory is a hierarchical structure that resembles a tree with one major branch at the top and many branches and sub-branches below;
associating the virtual domain node with one of the plurality of users;
associating a plurality of virtual domain attributes to the virtual domain node, the plurality of virtual domain attributes including a state of the virtual domain and one or more messaging services for the virtual domain; and
defining, for the virtual domain node, the one or more messaging services in a particular manner for the user associated with the virtual domain node.
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Abstract
According to the present invention, methods, apparatus, and computer readable medium are disclosed for defining a virtual domain in an electronic messaging system are disclosed. A virtual domain node is defined that corresponds to a real (non-virtual) domain. The virtual domain node resided in a hierarchically organized directory. A plurality of virtual domain attributes are then assigned to the virtual domain node. The directory is a tree based hierarchical directory arranged in such a way even in a multiple domain environment, a name search operation is executed as if in a flat name space.
89 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for defining a virtual domain in an electronic messaging system supporting a plurality of users, comprising:
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defining a virtual domain node corresponding to a real domain name server in a hierarchically organized directory wherein the hierarchically organized directory is a hierarchical structure that resembles a tree with one major branch at the top and many branches and sub-branches below; associating the virtual domain node with one of the plurality of users; associating a plurality of virtual domain attributes to the virtual domain node, the plurality of virtual domain attributes including a state of the virtual domain and one or more messaging services for the virtual domain; and defining, for the virtual domain node, the one or more messaging services in a particular manner for the user associated with the virtual domain node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computer-readable medium containing programming instructions for defining a virtual domain in an electronic messaging system supporting a plurality of users, the computer-readable medium comprising computer program code devices configured to cause a computer to execute the operations of:
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defining a virtual domain node corresponding to a real (non-virtual) domain in a hierarchically organized directory wherein the hierarchically organized directory is a hierarchical structure that resembles a tree with one major branch at the top and many branches and sub-branches below; and associating the virtual domain node with one of the plurality of users; associating a plurality of virtual domain attributes to the virtual domain node, the plurality of virtual domain attributes including a state of the virtual domain and one or more messaging services for the virtual domain; and defining, for the virtual domain node, the one or more messaging services in a particular manner for the user associated with the virtual domain node. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. An electronic messaging system having a main host computer for transferring an incoming message between users including a sending subscriber and a receiving subscriber having an associated unique user name, comprising:
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a messaging server coupled to the host computer arranged to receive the incoming message from the sending subscriber and arranged to forward the message to the receiving subscriber based upon the receiving subscriber'"'"'s user name; a hierarchically organized directory coupled to the messaging server arranged to define a virtual domain node corresponding to a real (non-virtual) domain, the virtual domain node associated with one of the users, the virtual domain node having associated with it a plurality of virtual domain attributes, wherein the hierarchically organized directory is a hierarchical structure that resembles a tree with one major branch at the top and many branches and sub-branches below, the plurality of virtual domain attributes including a state of the virtual domain and one or more messaging services for the virtual domain, the one or more messaging services defined in a particular manner for the user associated with the virtual domain node. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for defining a virtual domain in an electronic messaging system supporting a plurality of users, the method comprising:
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defining a plurality of virtual domain nodes in a hierarchically organized directory wherein the hierarchically organized directory is a hierarchical structure, each virtual domain node corresponding to a real domain name server; associating each virtual domain node with a respective one of the plurality of users; associating, for each of the virtual domain nodes, a plurality of virtual domain attributes to the node, the plurality of virtual domain attributes including a state of the virtual domain and one or more messaging services for the virtual domain; defining, for each of the virtual domain nodes, the one or more messaging services in a particular manner for the user associated with that virtual domain node. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
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Specification