Patent ID: 8271681

Claim:
A communications system comprising: at least one destination server for hosting a plurality of electronic mail (email) message boxes; a plurality of communications devices for generating email messages each associated with a respective message box; and a delivery server comprising a plurality of queues and a controller and a memory cooperating therewith for storing the email messages generated by the communications devices in a first queue, and attempting to send the stored email messages to the at least one destination server at a first sending attempt rate, moving email messages stored in the first queue to a second queue based upon receipt of a delivery failure message, attempting to send email messages stored in the second queue to the at least one destination server at a second sending attempt rate that is less than the first sending attempt rate, the second queue being one of a plurality of queues arranged in a hierarchy, each queue in the plurality of queues having a storage interval that successively increases from a highest queue to a lowest queue, the storage interval being independent from the first and second sending attempt rates, moving email messages from a higher queue to a next lower queue after being stored in the higher queue for a duration of its storage interval, and moving email messages having a common characteristic with a successfully delivered email message to the first queue.