JP3229592B2 - E-mail arrival confirmation method and recording medium recording e-mail arrival confirmation program - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for confirming arrival of electronic mail transmitted to a plurality of destinations in a computer network including a plurality of computers connected by communication means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the development of computer networks such as the Internet, personal computers and the like have been introduced into each home.

[0003] At the same time, from the viewpoint of depletion of wood resources and the reduction of distribution labor and distribution costs, it has been studied to send notices such as advertisements and notices by e-mail via these computer networks.

[0004] However, when notifying such advertisements and notices by e-mail instead of the conventional direct mail, it is necessary to send the same e-mail to an extremely large number of destinations, You need to make sure that the email has reached the recipient.

[0005] The conventional software for transmitting and receiving these e-mails is created on the premise that personal e-mails are used. When these same e-mails are to be distributed to many destinations, these e-mails are surely transmitted. It was not possible to reliably confirm whether or not it reached the destination.

For this reason, as a system and software for confirming and proving that these e-mails and the like have arrived at the other party, "Posta" developed by Tumbleweed of the United States as shown in FIG. "DoxIt" has been developed.

That is, document data such as e-mail sent from the sending computer 1 'is once stored in the dedicated document delivery server 2', and sent from the document delivery server 2 'to the receiving computer 3' of the document. It notifies that the document data to be received exists on the document delivery server 2 '.

[0008] Based on this notification, the receiving computer 3 'downloads and obtains the document data addressed to itself stored on the document delivery server 2', and based on the download, ensures that the document data is distributed. It was done,
It is possible to prove that these have been distributed.

[0009]

However, these systems and software require a third-party computer server 2 ', and all document data to be transmitted to the computer server 2' is transmitted to the destination. Because it is necessary to manage and operate with the destination,
The introduction of these systems requires enormous costs, so if you use these systems to check incoming calls and deliver e-mails, etc., one dollar or more per copy
There is a problem that a fee of $ 7 is required, and when such incoming confirmation is performed, ordinary direct mail is cheaper.

[0010] Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and when transmitting the same e-mail to a plurality of destinations, an e-mail capable of confirming the arrival of the e-mail The purpose of the present invention is to provide an incoming call confirmation method and an incoming call confirmation method program.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a method for confirming the arrival of an electronic mail according to the present invention comprises a computer network comprising a plurality of computers connected by a communication means. An incoming call confirmation method for distributing the same e-mail to a plurality of recipients, the method comprising: providing an identification code for assigning a unique identification code to an e-mail to be transmitted; A transmission procedure for transmitting the electronic mail to the plurality of destination addresses based on a destination address database in which a plurality of destination addresses of the electronic mail are recorded, and an error mail returned from the computer network due to some trouble. An identification code or an extraction procedure for extracting the identification code and a destination address, and the extracted identification code The destination address database corresponding to the e-mail specified by the destination address corresponding to the extracted destination address. In addition, an identification procedure for identifying the error content in the error mail, and the error content or the identification code capable of determining the error content correspond to the destination address corresponding to the destination address extracted from the error mail. And an error content recording procedure for recording the error in the destination address database when the error content determined in the identification procedure is an error content associated with the absence of the destination address. have a editing procedure for the deletion of the destination address from the database, before
Error content determined by the identification procedure goes down the server
If the content of the accompanying error is the error mail
Re-transmit the identification code and destination address
Retransmission determination procedure to be added to the
Electronically based on the retransmission list during
Is characterized in that the organic and the re-transmission procedure for re-transmission of e-mail, the. According to this feature, the identification code and the destination address individually assigned to each of the transmitted e-mails are extracted from the error mails which are returned unarrived due to some trouble, and the corresponding e-mails are extracted. Even if multiple e-mails are delivered from the same computer, whether or not the e-mail has arrived at which e-mail has been reached by recording the non-arrival in association with the corresponding destination address in the e-mail destination address database Can be confirmed at a low cost without providing a dedicated computer server as in the related art, and it is possible to confirm the cause of an undelivered defect for each destination address. Unnecessary because only the actual destination addresses that can receive e-mails are recorded in the destination address database. It is possible to reduce the transmission, it is also possible to reduce the transmission costs. Also,
Individual destination addresses that have not arrived due to server down
Automatically at the specified time or when the specified time elapses
Will be sent again.

[0012]

[0013] The incoming how to check the e-mail of the present invention, before
Entering or selecting the transmitted e-mail and the
In the destination address database corresponding to the e-mail
Selection procedure for selecting the destination address for which no arrival has been recorded
And a display procedure for displaying the selected destination address
And, it is preferable to have a. If you do this, send
By selecting or entering the email
Only the destination address where the e-mail has not arrived
Can be displayed to confirm the destination address
There is no need to check the entire database.

[0014] The incoming how to check the e-mail of the present invention, before
It is preferable that the identification code has a predetermined length . By doing so, the extraction in the extraction procedure and the identification code
This makes it easier to identify the corresponding e-mail .

[0015]

[0016]

According to the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which a program for confirming the arrival of an e-mail is provided. In a computer network including a plurality of computers connected by communication means, the same e-mail is transmitted from one originating side to a plurality of receiving sides. A recording medium on which a program for confirming an incoming call at the time of distribution is recorded, wherein an identification code assigning procedure for assigning a unique identification code to an e-mail to be transmitted is individually associated with the e-mail. A transmission procedure for transmitting the electronic mail to the plurality of destination addresses based on a destination address database in which a destination address is recorded, and the identification code or the identification based on an error mail returned from the computer network due to some trouble. An extraction procedure for extracting a code and a destination address;
In the destination address database corresponding to the e-mail specified by the extracted identification code, information indicating that the message has not arrived is recorded in association with the destination address corresponding to the extracted destination address. An identification procedure for identifying an error content in the error mail, and a discrimination code for identifying the error content or the error content corresponding to the destination address extracted from the error mail. Error content recording procedure of recording in the destination address database in association with the destination address to be executed, and the destination address in which the error content due to the absence of the destination address is recorded from the destination address database. A collecting procedure for collecting, and deleting the collected destination address from the destination address database. And the editing procedure, the destination address
From the database, the details of the error accompanying the server
An acquisition procedure to acquire the recorded destination address
The transmission acquired by the acquisition means after a predetermined time
A re-sender who resends the email to the destination address
And the order . According to this feature, the identification code and the destination address individually given to each of the transmitted e-mails are extracted from the error mails which have not arrived and are returned due to some trouble.
By recording the non-arrival in association with the corresponding destination address in the destination address database of the relevant e-mail, even if multiple e-mails are delivered from the same computer, which e-mail reaches which destination Can be checked at a low cost without providing a dedicated computer server as in the past,
The cause of the undelivered failure can be confirmed for each destination address, and only the destination addresses that are actually present and in which e-mail can be received are recorded in the destination address database. As a result, unnecessary transmission can be reduced, and transmission cost can be suppressed. Items that have not arrived due to server down
The specified time or the specified time elapses at each destination address
It will be automatically re-sent at that point.

[0018]

The recording medium on which the incoming call confirmation program of the present invention has been recorded is an input procedure or selection of the transmitted e-mail.
And the destination address data corresponding to the email.
Select the destination address in the database where the missed record was made
Display the selection procedure and the selected destination address.
Display procedure . This way, by selecting or entering the sent email,
The destination address for which the e-mail has not arrived at that time
Only the destination address is displayed.
There is no need to check the entire address database.

In the recording medium storing the incoming call confirmation program according to the present invention, it is preferable that the identification code has a predetermined length . In this way, extraction and extraction in the extraction procedure are performed.
And the identification of the electronic mail corresponding to the identification code can be facilitated.

[0021]

[0022]

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a sending computer 1 equipped with an e-mail arrival check program of the present invention and a computer network to which the computer 1 is connected. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the e-mail incoming confirmation program in the sending computer 1, and FIG. 3 shows the processing contents of the incoming mail processing routine in this embodiment. FIG. 4A is a diagram showing a transmission destination address database used in the present embodiment, and FIG.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display screen of a destination address that has not arrived.

In the present embodiment, the sending computer 1 equipped with the e-mail arrival check program of the present invention comprises:
As shown in FIG. 1, it is connected to the Internet 2 which is a computer network via a communication interface 8, and transmits and receives e-mails to and from each of the receiving side computers 3 connected to the Internet 2 and individually assigned individual addresses. It is possible.

As shown in FIG. 1, the transmission side computer 1 has a data bus 10 for transmitting and receiving data inside the computer 1 and various arithmetic processing and programs. A central processing unit (CPU) 4 for executing determination processing based on the like; a RAM 7 for storing calculation results and execution programs read from a storage device; a display device 6 including a display; an input device 5 including a keyboard and a mouse; This is a normal computer to which a storage device 9 composed of a magnetic disk or a magneto-optical disk and a communication interface 8 for performing data communication with the Internet 2 are connected. A transmission destination address database (DB) in which transmission destination addresses for distributing the data are recorded is stored in advance.

The processing operation of the e-mail incoming confirmation program mounted on the transmitting side computer 1 will be described with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS.

First, the operator inputs an electronic mail to be delivered from the input device 5 or selects document data of an electronic mail prepared in advance, and selects and inputs transmission.

Based on this, the selection of the e-mail is detected (S1), and the transmission of the selected e-mail is detected (S2).

Next, the destination address D in which the destination address to which the operator distributes the selected e-mail is recorded.
B is selected and input, and the input is detected (S3).

Based on the selection of the destination address DB,
At a predetermined position in the data string of the selected e-mail, a predetermined length identification code (in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the selected date and time data is combined with the serial number of the e-mail selected on that day. (S5), write the identification code into a copy of the selected destination address DB, and associate the destination address DB with the identification code. (S5) Next, the electronic mail with the identification code is transmitted to each destination address stored in the destination address DB. (S6) When the e-mail transmitted to each transmission destination address is returned as an error mail due to some trouble, the arrival of the e-mail is detected in S7.

When these incoming mails are detected,
The incoming mail processing routine shown in FIG. 3 is performed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the incoming mail processing routine determines whether the received mail is an error mail (T1). If the mail is not an error mail, the normal mail processing routine is executed. And if the mail is an error mail, extract the identification code and the destination address attached to the error mail (T
2), and the contents of the error are identified. (T3) Next, the destination address DB in which the destination address to which the e-mail specified by the extracted identification code is transmitted is specified (T4), and the destination address DB shown in FIG. As shown in (a), “1” indicating that the packet has not arrived is written in association with the destination address in the destination address DB, and the type of the error content identified above is set to SD, Record as NF, AT. (T5) In the present embodiment, the type of the error content is determined as SD due to the server down, the NF is determined as the destination address is not found (not present), and the AT is determined as the other type due to other reasons. And recorded as described above.

At this time, the content of the identified error is SD
In the case of, the identification code of the electronic mail and the destination address are added to the retransmission list. (T6, T7) When the identified error content is NF, the transmission destination address is added to the deletion list (T8, T7).
9) The address is deleted from the destination address DB at a predetermined maintenance time.
(S10) In this embodiment, the retransmission based on the retransmission list is automatically retransmitted (S9) when it is detected in S8 that a predetermined retransmission time (set at 0:00) has been reached. But,
The present invention is not limited to this, and these retransmissions may be performed after a predetermined time has elapsed from the transmission of the e-mail.

Further, in this embodiment, the destination address DB is maintained at the same time as the retransmission, and the maintenance is performed in the T9 from the master database of the copy destination of the destination address DB. Delete the destination address recorded in the deletion list.
(S10) In this way, since only the destination address that can receive an e-mail is sequentially updated in the master database, it is preferable because unnecessary transmission can be prevented.

After the transmission of the e-mail, if the user wants to confirm the destination address and the content of the error to which the e-mail has not arrived, the user selects the e-mail to be confirmed (S1), and then selects the e-mail. Select the ring display.
(S2) Thereby, the selection of the non-arrival display is detected, and the destination address DB corresponding to the selected e-mail is stored in the storage device 9.
Read from. (S11) From the read destination address DB, a destination address for which an error mail has been returned and the non-arrival record has become "1" is selected (S12), and the selected destination address is set to the content of the error. At the same time, it is displayed as shown in FIG. (S13) By doing so, it is possible to confirm the individual destination address that has not arrived and the cause of the non-arrival, and conversely, the e-mail transmitted to the destination address other than the non-arrival destination is Since they have arrived at the destination computer or a mail server (not shown) to which the computer is connected, these incoming calls can be confirmed.

As described above, the present invention has been described with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and even if there are changes and additions without departing from the gist of the present invention. Needless to say, this is included.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the identification code of a predetermined length is given to the electronic mail to be transmitted. In this way, the identification code can be easily extracted, compared, and searched. Although the frequency of the erroneous processing is reduced, it is preferable. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be a variable length.

In the present embodiment, the identification code is assigned to each document file of the e-mail transmitted as described above. However, the present invention is not limited to this. An identification code may be added to each transmitted electronic mail for identification. In this embodiment, the identification code of each document file added with a transmission destination address corresponds to the transmitted electronic mail. Although it is possible to use the identification code for each mail, since the identification code using these destination addresses is not a fixed length, it is preferable to separately add a predetermined length identification code if possible based on the above-described reason. .

In the above description, the retransmission and the deletion of the transmission destination address are performed by creating a list. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It may be performed separately based on the error content recorded in the transmission destination address DB.

[0041]

The present invention has the following effects.

(A) According to the first aspect of the present invention, from an error mail which is returned undelivered due to some trouble,
Extracting an identification code and a destination address individually assigned to each of the transmitted e-mails, and recording the non-arrival in association with the corresponding destination address in the destination address database of the corresponding e-mail. Therefore, even if multiple e-mails are delivered from the same computer, it is possible to check which e-mails have arrived at which destinations at low cost without providing a dedicated computer server as in the past. The cause of the undelivered failure can be confirmed for each destination address, and the destination address in the destination address database, which exists and is in an e-mail receivable state. Since only the information is recorded, unnecessary transmission can be reduced, and transmission cost can be suppressed. In addition, individual transmissions that have not arrived due to server down
A predetermined time or when a predetermined time has elapsed at the destination address
Will be automatically resent.

(B) According to the second aspect of the present invention, the transmitted
By selecting or entering the e-mail,
Only the destination addresses for which the e-mail has not arrived are displayed.
The destination address data.
There is no need to check the entire database.

(C) According to the third aspect of the present invention, the extraction procedure
Of e-mails corresponding to extraction and identification codes in
Can be easily performed.

The (d) The According to the invention of claim 4, some
From the error mail that is not received due to a failure and returned,
The knowledge individually assigned to each of the transmitted e-mails
Extract another code and destination address to
Corresponding destination in the mail destination address database
By recording unarrived in correspondence with the address, multiple
Email from the same computer
Which emails have arrived at which recipients
Should be provided with a dedicated computer server as in the past.
It can be confirmed at a low price without any
Check the cause of the problem for each destination address
Can be included in the destination address database
Is the destination address for which e-mail can be received.
Unnecessary transmission because only the dress is recorded
And transmission costs can be reduced.
You. In addition, individual transmissions that have not arrived due to server down
A predetermined time or when a predetermined time has elapsed at the destination address
Will be automatically resent.

(E) According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the transmitted
By selecting or entering the e-mail,
Only the destination addresses for which the e-mail has not arrived are displayed.
The destination address data.
There is no need to check the entire database.

(F) According to the invention of claim 6, the extraction procedure
Of e-mails corresponding to extraction and identification codes in
Can be easily performed.

[0048]

[0049]

[0050]

[0051]

[0052]

[0053]

[0054]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a computer network and a transmitting computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of an electronic mail arrival confirmation program in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing contents of an incoming mail processing routine of an electronic mail incoming confirmation program in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating a destination address database according to the embodiment of the present invention. (B) is a figure which shows the display content of the non-arrival display in the Example of this invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a system configuration and processing content for performing a conventional incoming call confirmation.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 originating computer 2 Internet (computer network) 3 receiving computer 4 central processing unit (CPU) 5 input device 6 display device 7 RAM 8 communication interface 9 storage device 10 data bus

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-11-41275 (JP, A) JP-A-6-284145 (JP, A) JP-A-5-316144 (JP, A) JP-A 2000-259514 (JP, A) JP-A-2000-66971 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 13/00 H04L 12/54

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. An incoming call confirmation method for distributing the same e-mail from one sending side to a plurality of receiving sides in a computer network including a plurality of computers connected by a communication means, wherein the transmitting electronic mail is provided. An identification code assigning step of assigning a unique identification code to the mail, and the plurality of destination addresses based on a destination address database in which a plurality of destination addresses of the email are individually associated with the email. A transmitting step of transmitting the electronic mail to the computer, an extracting step of extracting the identification code or the identification code and the destination address from an error mail returned from the computer network due to some trouble, and the extracted identification code. In the destination address database corresponding to the email specified by A non-arrival recording procedure for recording information indicating that the message has not arrived in association with the destination address corresponding to the destination address, and an identification procedure for identifying the error content in the error mail; Or an error content recording procedure of recording a discrimination code capable of discriminating the error content in the destination address database in association with a destination address corresponding to the destination address extracted from the error mail, in case the error content is determined by the identification procedure is error content associated with the absence of the destination address, it has a editing procedure from the destination address database and delete of the destination address, the identification procedure Error determined by
Smell when the contents are error contents due to server down
The identification code extracted from the error mail and the transmission
A retransmission determination procedure for adding a contact address to the retransmission list,
After a predetermined period of time or after a predetermined period of time,
Resend procedure to resend email based on send list
When the incoming How to check e-mail, characterized in that to have a. 2. An input procedure for the transmitted e-mail,
Is the selection procedure and the destination address corresponding to the e-mail
The destination address of the unrecorded record in the database
The selection procedure to be selected and the selected destination address are displayed.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification code has a predetermined length . 4. A plurality of computers connected by communication means.
Computer network consisting of data
The same e-mail from multiple senders to multiple recipients
Is a recording medium that stores the incoming confirmation program
To send a unique identification code to the e-mail to be sent.
A separate sign assignment procedure and individually associated with the e-mail.
And a plurality of destination addresses of the e-mail are recorded.
The plurality of destinations based on a destination address database
A sending procedure to send the email to the address and any
Reply from the computer network due to failure of
The identification code and destination from the error mail
An extraction procedure for extracting an address, and the extracted identification code
The destination address corresponding to the email specified by
In the destination database, and
Information that it has not arrived in association with the corresponding destination address
And the error recording procedure,
An identification procedure for identifying the error content in the email, and the error
The identification code that can determine the content or the error content is
Correspond to the destination address extracted from the
The destination address data in association with the destination address
Error content recording procedure for recording in the database,
Destination address exists in destination address database
The destination address where the details of the error associated with the absence
And the destination address data
Delete the collected destination address from the base
From the destination address database
Destination address where error details associated with the down are recorded
Acquisition procedure, and a predetermined time after a predetermined time.
The electronic mail is added to the destination address acquired by the acquisition unit.
And a re-sending procedure for re-sending the mail.
A record of the incoming e-mail confirmation program
Medium. 5. The input procedure of the transmitted e-mail or
The selection procedure and the destination address data corresponding to the e-mail
Select the destination address in the
Display the selection procedure to be selected and the selected destination address
5. A recording medium recording the electronic mail arrival confirmation program according to claim 4, further comprising: 6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said identification code has a predetermined length.
Is a recording medium which records the e-mail arrival check program described in 5.