Patent ID: 7970831

Claim:
An email method for an intranet web server, the email method comprising: at the intranet web server, automatically generating email on behalf of an intranet user; at the intranet web server, queuing the automatically-generated email in an email spooler; at the intranet web server, sending the automatically-generated email to a mail server for delivery to an intended recipient via the Internet, the mail server interposed between the intranet web server and the Internet; and at the intranet web server, if the automatically-generated email is returned from the mail server as undeliverable to the intended recipient the email method includes the acts of: (a) fetching an email address for the intranet web server's system administrator; (b) verifying normal operation of the email spooler by examining each email queued in the email spooler to determine the pendency of each email within the email spooler; (c) emailing the system administrator regarding an abnormal operation if act (b) verifies that the email spooler is not operating normally; (d) processing each undeliverable email to determine whether it was returned because of a problem with the email itself or because of a problem with the mail server; (e) resending the undeliverable email to the intended recipient if act (d) determines that an undeliverable email was returned because of a problem with the mail server; and (f) sending the undeliverable email to the originating intranet user if act (d) determines that an undeliverable email was returned because of a problem with the undeliverable email itself, wherein act (b) comprises: emailing the system administrator regarding each email's pendency if an email's pendency within the email spooler exceeds a normal pendency period from a time initially received by the email spooler, wherein the normal pendency period comprises a predefined time period including two minutes from the time initially received by the email spooler.