System and method for maintaining and administering email address names in a network

An email system for facilitating communications between a set of email mailboxes within the email system and a foreign email system, the email system comprising:

• a gateway for performing communications with the foreign email system under an established protocol, the gateway receiving an email transmission having a recipient email address portion and a message portion;
• a directory database for maintaining a set of entries associated with the set of email mailboxes, each entry for an email mailbox comprising:
• an identification corresponding to an address within the email system for storing received email messages addressed to the email mailbox;
• and
• a proxy list comprising a proxy address, independently assignable with respect to an account name with which the email mailbox is associated, the proxy address identifying the email mailbox;
• search means for performing a search upon proxy addresses within the set of entries in order to locate a proxy address within the directory matching a recipient email address portion of a received email transmission and returning the identification for the corresponding email mailbox;
• and
• means for directing at least the message portion to an email mailbox associated with the identification.

A method for performing email communications between a set of email mailboxes within an email system and a foreign email system wherein the email system includes a directory database for maintaining a set of entries associated with the set of email mailboxes, and each entry for an email mailbox comprises (1) an identification corresponding to an address within the email system for storing received email messages addressed to the email mailbox, and (2) a proxy list comprising a proxy address, independently assignable with respect to the account name with which the email mailbox is associated, identifying the email mailbox, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a gateway, an email transmission from the foreign system according to an established protocol, the email transmission including a recipient email address portion and a message portion;
• matching a proxy address within the directory database to the recipient email address portion, and in response generating a reference to an email mailbox corresponding to the matching proxy address;
• and
• directing at least the message portion to the email mailbox corresponding to the matching proxy address.