Patent ID: 6721803
Filing Date: 2004-04-13
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
A method for processing a message in a network computing system including a facsimile transmission comprised of a recipient contact address and one or more attached files, comprising:managing facsimile transmissions as fax jobs in a fax management system; for each attachment file in a fax job, performing: (i) determining, with the fax management system, a network address of a computer including an application program capable of converting the attachment file to at least one image in a file format, wherein different computers at different network addresses are capable of converting different attachment file types to at least one image in the file format, wherein the determination with the fax management system comprises processing a table having entries that each associate a file type with a network address of a computer including the application program capable of converting an attachment file of the associated file type and determining an entry having a file type that matches the file type of the attachment file, and wherein the table includes entries of computers that have different operating systems and different application programs; (ii) transmitting, with the fax management system, the attachment file to the computer at the determined network address; (iii) executing, with the computer receiving the attachment file, one application program to convert the attachment file to at least one image in a file format; and transferring all the converted attachment files in the message to a communication port for transmittal to the recipient contact address.