Patent ID: 7240199

Claim:
A method of transmitting a message from a sender to a recipient through a server displaced from the recipient, including the steps of: receiving the message at the server from the sender and receiving an indication at the server from the sender that the sender wishes to have the server send the message to the recipient in a manner special and individual to the recipient and intended for the recipient and not normally provided by the server, transmitting, from the server to the recipient the message in the manner special and individual to the recipient and not normally followed by the server in accordance with the indication from the sender to the server, an identification and address of the server and an identity of the sender, receiving at the server from the recipient first information including the identity of the recipient and an indication of the receipt of the message by the recipient and the identification and address of the server and the identity of the sender and sending to the sender from the server, before any authentication of the message, a copy of the message and the first information received by the server from the recipient, thereafter sending the information including the message, and a message authentication code from the sender to the server, before any authentication of the message by the server, when the server requests to have the message authenticated and processing at the server the information transmitted from the sender to the server, without any assistance from the recipient, to authenticate the message.