Communication device having the capability of performing information exchange between a facsimile medium and an electronic information medium such as an e-mail medium

A communication method of a communication device, for receiving an e-mail stored in an e-mail server, said method comprising the steps of:

• transmitting an e-mail transmission request to the e-mail server and receiving the e-mail transmitted from the e-mail server in response to the transmission request;
• storing the e-mail received from the e-mail server in a memory unit;
• acquiring from the e-mail server, before receiving the e-mail from the e-mail server, size information of the e-mail located on the e-mail server;
• determining, based on the size information of the requested e-mail acquired in said acquiring step and an available storage capacity of the memory unit, whether the storage capacity of the memory unit is sufficient to store all data included in the e-mail, wherein, if it is determined that the available storage capacity of the memory unit in the communication device is sufficient to store all the data included in the e-mail, the e-mail server transmits the e-mail entirely to the communication device, otherwise the e-mail server transmits only header data of the e-mail to the communications device;
• and,
• if it is determined in said determining step that the available storage capacity of the memory unit of the communication device is not sufficient to store all the data included in the e-mail, visually outputting warning information to the communication device indicating that the e-mail stored in the e-mail server cannot be entirely received,
• wherein said step of visually outputting includes generating a report indicating the warning information and recording it using recording means, and
• wherein a received e-mail is converted into image data and recorded using the recording means.

A computer-readable memory medium storing executable code for performing a communication method of receiving an e-mail stored in an e-mail server, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

• transmitting an e-mail transmission request to the e-mail server and receiving the e-mail transmitted from the e-mail server in response to the transmission request;
• storing the e-mail received from the e-mail server in a memory unit;
• acquiring from the e-mail server, before receiving the e-mail from the e-mail server, size information of the e-mail located on the e-mail server;
• determining, based on the size information of the requested e-mail acquired in said acquiring step and an available storage capacity of the memory unit, whether the storage capacity of the memory unit in the communication device is sufficient to store all data included in the e-mail, wherein, if it is determined that the available storage capacity of the memory unit is sufficient to store all the data included in the e-mail, the e-mail server transmits the e-mail entirely to the communication device, otherwise the e-mail server transmits only header data of the e-mail to the communication device;
• and,
• if it is determined in said determining step that the available storage capacity of the memory unit of the communication device is not sufficient to store all the data included in the e-mail, visually outputting warning information to the communication device indicating that the e-mail stored in the e-mail server cannot be entirely received,
• wherein said step of visually outputting includes generating a report indicating the warning information and recording it using recording means, and
• wherein a received e-mail is converted into image data and recorded using the recording means.

A communication device for receiving an e-mail stored in an e-mail server, said device comprising:

• a communication unit adapted to transmit an e-mail transmission request to the e-mail server and to receive the e-mail transmitted from the e-mail server in response to the transmission request;
• a memory unit adapted to store the e-mail received from the e-mail server;
• an acquisition unit adapted to acquire from the e-mail server, before said communication unit receives the e-mail from the e-mail server, size information of the e-mail located on the e-mail server;
• a determination unit adapted to determine, based on the size information of the requested e-mail acquired by said acquisition unit and an available storage capacity of said memory unit, whether the storage capacity of said memory unit in the communication device is sufficient to store all data included in the e-mail, wherein, if it is determined that the available storage capacity of said memory unit is sufficient to store all the data included in the e-mail, the email server transmits the e-mail entirely to the communication device, otherwise the e-mail server transmits only header data of the e-mail to the communication device;
• a warning unit adapted to, if said determination unit determines that the available storage capacity of said memory unit of said communication device is not sufficient to store all the data included in the e-mail, visually output warning information to the communication device indicating that the e-mail stored in the e-mail server cannot be entirely received;
• and
• a recording unit, wherein said warning unit generates a report indicating the warning information and records it using said recording unit,
• wherein said communication unit converts a received e-mail into image data and records that e-mail using said recording unit.