JP2003122682A - Electronic mail processor and method for controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a processor for providing a prescribed service based on a received electronic mail capable of preventing a failure such as a mail loop at the time of transmitting information related with a service requested through the electronic mail as a reply to the electronic mail. SOLUTION: A print server device 10 provides a service to print an electronic mail to be transmitted, and returns various notification related with the service to the destination of a user as a reply to the mail. A reply inhibition address table 116 is registered with an address which is likely to generate a mail loop as the destination such as the mail address of the service device 10 or an address for mail server management such as 'postmaster'. At the time of receiving an electronic mail, a reply control part 114 obtains the address of the destination of reply from the header of the mail, and when any of those reply destination addresses is registered in the table 116, erases the address from the list of the reply destination addresses of the mail.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for providing a predetermined service processing based on a received electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art E-mail has become widespread, and in recent years, not only personal computers but also mobile phones and personal computers have become popular.
Various types of user terminals such as DA (Personal Data Assistant) can exchange electronic mail. While improving convenience in this way, problems such as exchange of e-mail between different terminals have been pointed out, such as the number of characters of mail that can be received on mobile phones is limited and attachments cannot be displayed. There is.

To address such a problem, the applicant has proposed a print service using a print system that receives a print instruction by e-mail (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2).
000-125801, Japanese Patent Application 2000-130241, etc.). This print system is compatible with various applications, and when a user sends an electronic mail to the print system, the text of the electronic mail and the attached file are printed. The user can go to the installation location of the print system that sent the email and receive the print result. This system can be used not only for use from a mobile phone, but also for various purposes when a person who does not have a printer wants to print an e-mail or prints with high quality.

This printing system creates an e-mail notifying whether or not a print instruction by the received e-mail is accepted, and authentication information which the user should input to the print system when printing out, and sends it back to the user. To do.

In the above, the device that provides the print service based on the electronic mail has been taken as an example, but other devices that provide the service based on the received electronic mail are conceivable. In such a system, it is rational to make various notifications to service requests by e-mail by replying to the e-mail.

[0006]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Although it is rational to reply various notifications to a service request by e-mail, a malicious person may reply to the service request e-mail reply information (Reply- If the email address for request acceptance of the service providing apparatus is described in the (To header), the reply mail may be accepted as a service request by the system and processed. When such a situation occurs, not only the resources of the service providing device are wasted, but also a reply mail addressed to the device is transmitted to the reply mail, which may even cause a mail loop.

In order to escape from such a mail loop, the conventional general electronic mail server examines the transmission history of the electronic mail, judges that it is a loop mail if it is a predetermined value or more, and deletes it. Is going.

However, in such processing, a mail loop occurs many times before it is determined to be a loop mail, which causes a resource of the service providing device (for example, a storage capacity for storing those loop mails, etc.). ) Is inevitably wasted.

Further, if the reply destination address is not found (destination unknown) or is an invalid address, an error mail is notified to the service providing device which has returned the mail to the address. Such error mail processing is also not preferable in that it consumes resources of the service providing apparatus.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and in an apparatus that provides a process for a predetermined service based on a received electronic mail, information regarding a service request by the electronic mail is sent to the electronic mail. The purpose is to prevent or reduce problems when replying.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic mail processing apparatus according to the present invention relates to a service processing unit which executes a predetermined service processing based on a received electronic mail, and the received electronic mail. A notification regarding the service processing of a reply processing unit for replying as an e-mail to a reply address obtained from the header information of the e-mail, and a reply address obtained from the header information of the received e-mail, A reply control unit that suppresses reply processing of the reply processing unit for an address that satisfies a preset condition is provided.

Further, the electronic mail processing device according to the present invention is
An e-mail processing device that passes a received e-mail to a service providing device that executes a predetermined service process based on the e-mail and processes the e-mail, and sends a notification regarding a service process of the received e-mail by the service providing device. , A reply processing unit that replies as an e-mail to a reply destination address obtained from the header information of the e-mail and a reply destination address obtained from the header information of the received e-mail satisfies a preset condition A reply control unit that suppresses the reply process of the reply processing unit.

In a preferred aspect of these inventions, the electronic mail processing apparatus further comprises means for prohibiting execution of the service processing when all reply addresses obtained from the header information are addresses satisfying the conditions. .

Further, the control method of the electronic mail processing apparatus according to the present invention executes a predetermined service processing based on the received electronic mail and sends a notification regarding the service processing to a reply destination obtained from the header information of the electronic mail. In an e-mail processing device that replies as an e-mail to an address, among the reply destination addresses obtained from the header information of the received e-mail, do not make the reply to an address that satisfies a preset condition. To control.

In the method according to the present invention, the received e-mail is passed to a service providing device that executes a predetermined service process based on the e-mail and processed, and the service providing device for the received e-mail is processed. In the e-mail processing device that returns a notification regarding the service processing by the e-mail to the reply address obtained from the header information of the e-mail, among the reply address obtained from the header information of the received e-mail, The above-mentioned reply is controlled not to be sent to the address that satisfies the set conditions.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a system according to the present invention.

In this system, the print service apparatus 10 is installed in, for example, a store such as a print shop, an office, or the like, and is an apparatus that provides a user with a printout service of an electronic mail and its attached file. The print service device 10 includes a communication processing unit 10
2, request management unit 104, data storage unit 106, UI unit 1
08, print processing unit 110, print engine 11
2, a reply control unit 114 and a reply prohibited address table 116. These components (excluding the print engine 112, which is a mechanical device) are common O
It is realized by a program group operating on S.

The communication processing unit 102 is means for transmitting and receiving electronic mail via the network 30 such as the Internet. The request management unit 104 is means for managing print requests from users. The data storage unit 106 is a unit that stores the data of the electronic mail to be printed received from the user. UI (user interface) unit 108
Is a user interface mechanism for receiving a user's operation instruction to the print service apparatus 10, and includes, for example, a device such as a touch panel that can be used as a display unit and an input unit. The print processing unit 110 is a unit that converts the text of an electronic mail or an attached file into printable image data and controls the print engine 112 to print the image data on a sheet. Print processing unit 1
10 is compatible with various applications, and can convert the attached file created by each application into printable data. The print engine 112 is a mechanical printing mechanism that prints printable data on paper.

The reply control unit 114, in the reply process of sending a notification to the user by sending a reply to the e-mail regarding a print request by e-mail, causes a hindrance to the process of the service apparatus 10 and waste of resources. This is a means to prevent sending an email. The reply control unit 114 performs control so as not to perform a reply that causes a mail loop or a reply to an unauthorized destination, for example. The email address of the reply destination that may cause such a problem is the reply prohibited address table 1.
It is registered in 16. The reply control unit 114 controls not to reply to the addresses registered in the table 116.

An example of the electronic mail address of the reply prohibition object registered in the table 116 will be described below.

As the reply-prohibited address, there is an e-mail address used by the service apparatus 10 to receive an e-mail requesting a print request from the user. When this address is designated as the reply destination, the reply mail is sent to the communication processing unit 10.
2 may be received and processed as another print request. In addition, a similar reply may be created for this reply, which may cause a mail loop.

Further, a mail server that provides an electronic mail service to the device 10 (the communication processing unit 1 of the device 10
02 may have a mail server function),
Reserved accounts for mail server management such as "MAILER-DAEMON" and "postmaster" are also candidates for reply-disabled addresses. This is because a mail loop may occur even when a reply mail is sent to such an address.

If a reply is made to an address that cannot be sent due to an unknown destination or an invalid address (wrong address, etc.), an error mail is sent to the device 10, and the resources of the device 10 are processed to process the error mail. It will be used. Therefore, it is preferable to register such an unknown address or an illegal address in the table 116 as a reply-prohibited address. However, since the facts of these unknown destination addresses and illegal addresses cannot be found until they are sent, if the facts are found as a result of the sending, the addresses are stored in the table 11.
All you have to do is to register in 6. This registration can be automated. That is, regarding the returned mail, an error mail is returned for those that could not be sent. Therefore, the destination address that failed in the transmission indicated by the error mail can be automatically registered in the table 116 as a transmission failure address or the like. it can.

The example of the reply prohibited address registered in the reply prohibited address table 116 has been described above. In the table 116, it is not necessary to register all of the above-described reply-prohibited addresses, but only those that cause a problem in the service apparatus 10 may be registered. Further, in addition to the illustrated addresses, addresses considered to be necessary by the administrator of the print service apparatus 10 may be registered in the table 116 as reply-prohibited addresses.

The flow of service provision to the user by the service device 10 is as follows. That is, first, the user operates the user terminal 20 to send the electronic mail to be printed to the electronic mail address of the print service apparatus 10 via the network 30 such as the Internet. The data of this e-mail is the service device 10.
It is received by the communication processing unit 102 and stored in the data storage unit 106, and the processing is managed by the request management unit 104. The request management unit 104 examines the data of the mail and determines whether the mail can be printed by the service apparatus 10. If the mail can be printed, the request management unit 104 authenticates the receipt number and password as a reply to the mail. Send a reception notice email with the information. In the normal case, this acceptance notification mail reaches the user who sent the electronic mail to be printed. In addition to the acceptance notification, when it is necessary to send various notifications for the requested print service to the user, the service apparatus 10 sends the notifications in the form of a reply to the received email.

Upon receipt of the reception notice mail, the user goes to the place where the service apparatus 10 of the print request destination is installed, and inputs the authentication information such as the reception number and the password by operating the buttons of the UI unit 108, for example. And give a print instruction. In response to this instruction, the service device 10 prints the text of the instructed e-mail, an attached file, or the like on paper and outputs it. If the user terminal 20 is a mobile terminal with a wireless communication function such as Bluetooth, the wireless communication function may be used to input the authentication information to the print service apparatus 10.

According to this system, for example, when the user wants to read in detail the e-mail received by the mobile phone at the destination, the e-mail is installed in a print shop or a convenience store on the way to the destination. It is possible to perform efficient work such as transferring to the device 10 to request printing, receiving the print result, and then going to the destination. Since the apparatus 10 can execute the process of converting the email or its attached file into printable image data before the user arrives after sending the reception notification email to the user, the user can The printing process can be performed quickly when it arrives.

The above is the flow when an ordinary user who intends to use the service sends an electronic mail to the service device 10. As described above, in this system, various notifications are sent to the user who requested the service by using the reply function of the mail software. Therefore, the notification function by this reply is abused and the service device 1 is used.
Some may try to interfere with the processing of 0. Therefore, next, the procedure of the processing of the service device 10 including the defense processing against such interference will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when the communication processing section 102 detects that a new electronic mail has arrived (S10), the reply control section 114
Examines the header information of the e-mail and obtains a reply address when replying to the e-mail (S1
2). For example, if there are one or more addresses in the Reply-To field of the header information, they are reply destination addresses, and if there is no Reply-To field, the address described in the From field becomes the reply destination address.

Next, it is checked whether the reply destination address is registered in the reply prohibited address table 116 (S1
4) If it is registered, delete the address from the list of reply addresses of the e-mail (S1
6) If not registered, leave the address in the list of return addresses. This process is repeated for all the return addresses obtained in S12 (S18). In this way, the list of reply addresses is modified so that it does not include addresses that are known to cause problems such as mail loops.

S14 for all reply addresses
When the processing of S16 is completed, it is determined whether or not there are any addresses remaining in the list of reply destination addresses (S20). If it remains, a predetermined process relating to the service provided by the service apparatus 10 is executed on the data of the new mail detected in S10 (S22). The predetermined process here includes, for example, a process of determining whether or not the service apparatus 10 can accept the print request by the electronic mail, a process of printing out the electronic mail of the print request, and the like. In the former process, it is conceivable to send back the above-mentioned reception notification mail or notification mail notifying that it cannot be received, depending on the processing result. Further, in the latter process, a configuration may be considered in which a notification mail indicating the result of the printing process is returned. In any case, the "predetermined process" in S22 is a process in which a notification regarding the process is to be sent by replying to the print request e-mail. The service device 10 creates a notification of the processing result for such processing as a reply to the electronic mail received in S10, and sends it back (S24). In this reply, S14-S1
A reply mail is sent to the list of reply destination addresses corrected by the process of 8.

As described above, in this embodiment, the reply-prohibited address is deleted from the reply destination of the received electronic mail, so that the above-mentioned problem is prevented when the notification regarding the processing of the service apparatus 10 is sent by reply. Or, since it can be reduced, waste of resources of the device 10 can be reduced.

There is a possibility that the list of reply destination addresses becomes empty (that is, there is no reply destination address) by the processing of S14 to S18. For example, the notification by reply is important information when receiving the service by the service device 10, such as notifying the password when the print result is acquired from the service device 10. Therefore, conversely, if there is no reply destination, it can be determined that the sender of the e-mail has no intention of receiving the service. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when it is determined in S20 that there is no reply destination, the service device 10 determines that the email received in S10 is intended for unauthorized use such as mischief on the device 10, The mail is not processed in S22, and the reply in S24 is not sent. As a result, the processing itself can be canceled with respect to the illegal mail, and the service device 1
0 resources can be further saved.

Now, the communication processing unit 10 of the service device 10
2 can be configured as a mail server such as an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server, or can be configured as a POP.
It can also be configured as software that receives mail from a mail server using the 3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) protocol or the like. In the former case, S in FIG.
The processing of 12 to S18 (inspection of mail header and correction of reply destination information based on it) can be performed when the communication processing unit 102 (mail server) receives a new mail.
And as a result, if there is no reply address,
It is possible not to receive the mail itself. In the latter case, the processes of S12 to S18 may be performed after the communication processing unit 102 receives the electronic mail from the mail server and before performing the above-described predetermined process on the electronic mail.

In the above example, whether or not the address is a reply-prohibited address is determined by whether or not the address is registered in the table 116. However, instead of the method of enumerating specific reply-prohibited addresses in this manner, or In addition to the method, it is also possible to distinguish the reply-prohibited address by using a rule. For example, an e-mail address containing illegal characters can be identified by a rule.

As a modified example of this embodiment, a server device including the communication processing unit 102, the reply control unit 114, and the reply-prohibited address table 116 is provided separately from the print service device 10, and printing on the print service device 10 is performed. The request e-mail may be received by this server device, and the above-mentioned correction processing of the return address list of the received e-mail may be performed by this server device. In this case, the print service device 10 receives the e-mail whose reply destination has been corrected by the server device, and performs service processing such as printing.

In the above example, the print service system for printing out e-mail information is taken as an example. In addition to this, a mailing list for distributing received e-mails to a group of mail addresses registered in advance, etc. , There are various services based on the received e-mail data. The method of the embodiment described above can be applied to devices and systems for such various services.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a print service apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a main part of processing of the print service apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 print service device, 20 user terminal, 30
Network, 102 communication processing unit, 104 request management unit, 106 data storage unit, 108 UI unit, 110
Print processing unit, 112 Print engine, 114
Reply control unit, 116 Reply prohibited address table.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A service processing unit that executes a predetermined service process based on a received e-mail, and a notification regarding the service process for the received e-mail to a reply destination address obtained from header information of the e-mail. Of the reply processing unit that replies as an e-mail and the reply destination address obtained from the header information of the received e-mail, the reply processing of the reply processing unit is suppressed for an address that satisfies a preset condition. An e-mail processing device comprising: a reply control unit. 2. An e-mail processing device that passes a received e-mail to a service providing device that executes a predetermined service process based on the e-mail and processes the e-mail, wherein the service providing device processes the received e-mail. A reply processing unit that sends back a notification regarding service processing as an e-mail to a reply address obtained from the header information of the e-mail; and a reply address obtained from the header information of the received e-mail. An e-mail processing device comprising: a reply control unit that suppresses reply processing of the reply processing unit for an address that satisfies the specified condition. 3. The electronic mail processing device according to claim 1, wherein when the reply destination addresses obtained from the header information are all addresses that satisfy the conditions, the service processing is executed. An electronic mail processing device further comprising means for prohibiting 4. The electronic mail processing device according to claim 1, wherein the condition regarding the reply destination address is that the address is an electronic mail address of the electronic mail processing device. An electronic mail processing device characterized by the above. 5. The electronic mail processing device according to claim 1, wherein the condition regarding the reply destination address is that the address is a predetermined reserved address for mail server management. An electronic mail processing device characterized by. 6. The electronic mail processing device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein if there is a reply that was made by the reply processing unit that did not reach the destination, the address of this destination is the reply prohibited address. The electronic mail processing device, further comprising means for registering the reply destination address, wherein the condition regarding the reply destination address is that the address is an address registered in the reply prohibited address list. 7. An electronic mail processing device for executing a predetermined service process based on an received electronic mail and returning a notification regarding the service process as an electronic mail to a reply address obtained from header information of the electronic mail. A method for controlling an electronic mail processing device, which controls not to send a reply to an address that satisfies a preset condition among reply destination addresses obtained from the header information of the received electronic mail. 8. The received e-mail is passed to a service providing device that executes a predetermined service process based on the e-mail to be processed, and a notification regarding the service process of the received e-mail by the service providing device is provided. An e-mail processing device that replies as an e-mail to a reply destination address obtained from the header information of the e-mail, satisfies a preset condition among reply address obtained from the header information of the received e-mail. A method of controlling an electronic mail processing device, which controls not to reply to an address. 9. The e-mail processing method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein when the reply destination addresses obtained from the header information are all addresses that satisfy the conditions, the service processing is executed. A method of controlling an electronic mail processing device, characterized by prohibiting