System and method for smtp and alternative email protocol interoperability
AssigneeMeixler Technologies, Inc.
InventorMichael A. MEIXLER
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for migrating from the legacy SMTP protocol to an alternative email protocol, such as Bitmessage protocol, for sending email messages comprising a publicly accessible directory which associates the alternative email protocol addresses with an SMTP addresses of a particular recipient, and a server that accepts an outgoing message sent by SMTP protocol and routes the outgoing message via the alternative email protocol if recipient's SMTP address and a corresponding alternative email protocol address is found in the directory, and routes the message by SMTP protocol if no corresponding alternative email protocol address is found in the directory.
Claims22
A system for delivering email messages over the Internet regardless of the email protocol, said system comprising:
- an Internet-based directory that is publicly accessible, said directory comprising a plurality of records wherein each record associates a recipient with at least one simple mail transport protocol (SMTP) address and wherein each record may also associate each recipient with at least one alternative email protocol address;
- a server in communication with the Internet, said server capturing recipient identities of messages generated by at least one sender mail client and then querying said Internet-based directory to determine if each of said recipient identities includes a respective alternative email protocol address;
- and
- wherein said server routes any message through an alternative email protocol message transfer agent (MTA) to a corresponding recipient whenever said directory returns an alternative email protocol address associated with said corresponding recipient to said server query and wherein said server routes any message through an SMTP MTA whenever said directory returns an SMTP protocol address associated with said corresponding recipient to said server query.
A method for delivering email messages over the Internet regardless of the email protocol, said method comprising:
- forming a publicly accessible directory having records wherein each record associates an email recipient with at least one simple mail transport protocol (SMTP) address and wherein each record may also associate each recipient with at least one alternative email protocol address;
- configuring a server, in communication with the Internet, to capture recipient identities of messages generated by at least one sender mail client and then to query said publicly accessible directory to determine if each of said recipient identities includes a respective alternative email protocol address;
- and
- routing any message, by said server, through an alternative email protocol message transfer agent (MTA) to a corresponding recipient whenever said directory returns an alternative email protocol address associated with said corresponding recipient to said server query and routing any message, by said server, through an SMTP MTA whenever said directory returns an SMTP protocol address associated with said corresponding recipient to said server query.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.