Patent ID: 8819412

Claim:
A method of resolving a communications path and sending a private message from a sending computer to a receiving computer over a computer network including at least one third party computer in the communications path, the method comprising: evaluating, with a system registry, an Internet Protocol address of the receiving computer, wherein the Internet protocol address of the receiving computer is dynamically established; determining, with the system registry, when the receiving computer is a private messaging network member of a mail service peer network that includes the sending computer based upon the evaluation of the Internet Protocol address of the receiving computer; determining when the receiving computer is directly addressable by the sending computer; resolving a delivery address of the receiving computer at the time of transmission of the private message; dynamically establishing at the time of transmission of the private message an encrypted line from the receiving computer to the sending computer, where the encrypted line is a direct communications path through which the private message is sent from the sending computer to the receiving computer, where the direct communications path provides no persistent copies of the private message to the at least one third party computer; providing network location information of the sending computer to the receiving computer; and transmitting the private message from the sending computer directly to the receiving computer over the encrypted line to the delivery address resolved at the time of transmission without the at least one third party computer receiving a persistent copy of the private message; checking the system registry and determining when the recipient of the private message on the receiving computer is the private messaging network member; establishing the direct communications path between the sending computer and the receiving computer when the sending computer is the member of the private messaging network and the receiving computer is a non-member of the private messaging network, by notifying the receiving computer through a non-private message comprising an embedded link to directly access the private message from the sending computer, and the receiving computer launches a system web client that contacts the system registry to locate the sending computer, where the direct communications path provides no persistent copy and storage of the private message by an intermediary device.