Patent ID: 7603419

Claim:
A system for automatically learning mailbox configuration conventions comprising: a user system having an email client; a mailbox interface server operative as an agent between the user system and an electronic mailbox of the user, said mailbox interface server comprising a validator module that determines a valid set of configuration parameters used for accessing an electronic mailbox of a user within a mail domain after receiving configuration information from the user that is limited in the configuration parameters required for accessing the electronic mailbox wherein the validator module is operative for attempting access to a respective mailbox using a set of estimates for configuration parameters and requesting additional information from the user and generating new sets of potentially valid configuration parameters for reattempting access if an initial access attempt fails; a learner module that accepts from the validator module a set of configuration parameters determined to be valid and generates configuration conventions for a mail domain wherein the configuration conventions are sets of email expressions formed by symbols that symbolically represent the conventions used by email providers for a set of configuration parameters used for accessing electronic mailboxes and wherein the mailbox interface server is operative for generating a subset of the original sets of possible configuration parameters by using heuristics of likelihood that the configuration parameters are valid for accessing the electronic mailbox for a mail domain; and a database that stores the configuration conventions for mail domains.