Selective acceptance of electronic messages in communication systems

An electronic communication system comprising a plurality of electronic communication devices, comprising:

• a communication device that communicates with remote devices, the communication device comprising a selective acceptance system that evaluates communications requests from the remote devices, and accepts communications requests in accordance with selective acceptance criteria comprising at least one of an identification of the requesting remote device, an identification of a user of the requesting remote device, and a communication address listed in a destination file;
• a communications system that receives a communication from a requesting remote device when the communications request from the requesting remote device has been accepted;
• a destination file that lists the communication address of the at least one remote device linked to an identification comprising at least one of an identification of the requesting remote device and an identification of a user of the requesting remote device;
• and
• a remote communication device whose communication address is listed in the destination file and linked to an identification.

A method for controlling communications between communication devices by selective acceptance of communication requests from remote devices in an electronic communication system, comprising:

• storing a destination file comprising, for each of one or more remote devices, a communication address of the remote device linked to an identification comprising at least one of an identification of the remote device and an identification of a user of the remote device;
• evaluating communications requests from the remote devices to determine whether each satisfies selective acceptance criteria comprising at least one of an identification of the requesting remote device, an identification of a user of the requesting remote device, and a communication address listed in the destination file;
• accepting only communications requests determined to satisfy the selective acceptance criteria;
• and
• receiving from requesting remote devices only communications that are the subject of an accepted communications request.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium on which is stored a program that causes an electronic communication system to control electronic communication with remote devices, comprising:

• a selective acceptance code segment that evaluates communications requests from the remote devices, and accepts only communication requests from remote devices satisfying selective acceptance criteria, the selective acceptance criteria comprising at least one of an identification of the requesting remote device, an identification of a user of the requesting remote device, and a communication address listed in a destination file;
• a communications code segment that receives from requesting remote devices only communications that are the subject of communications requests that have been accepted;
• and
• a destination file code segment that stores at least communication addresses for remote devices linked to an identification comprising at least one of an identification of the requesting remote device and an identification of a user of the requesting remote device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium on which is stored a program for execution in an electronic communication system, comprising:

• a selective acceptance code segment that evaluates communications requests from remote devices, and accepts only communications requests that satisfy selective acceptance criteria comprising at least a communication address listed in a destination file;
• a communications code segment that receives from requesting remote devices only communications that are the subject of approved communications requests;
• and
• a destination file code segment that stores a destination file code segment that stores at least communication addresses for communication addresses at least for remote devices from which it may receive communication requests and remote devices to which it may send communication requests,
• wherein the selective acceptance code segment automatically accepts communications from remote devices having communication addresses listed in the destination file and automatically rejects communications from remote devices not having communication addresses listed in the destination file,
• and wherein the selective acceptance code segment is configurable to accept communications only from remote devices having communication addresses listed in the destination file.

A method for selective acceptance of communication requests from remote devices in an electronic communication system to control communications between communication devices, comprising:

• for each of a plurality of remote devices from which communication requests will be accepted, storing in a destination list destination information for the remote device comprising at least a destination address of the remote device;
• receiving a plurality of communications requests from a requesting network device;
• in response to the receipt of each communication request:
• comparing identifying information for the requesting remote device with the stored destination list;
• prohibiting communications from the requesting remote device if identifying information for the requesting remote device is not within the destination list;
• accepting communications requests from the requesting remote device if identifying information for the requesting remote device is within the destination list;
• and
• receiving communications corresponding to the communications request from the requesting remote device if the communications request has been accepted.