Patent ID: 6865671

Claim:
In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, a method for determining whether to approve relaying of e-mail received from a roaming user, the method comprising: attempting to authenticate the user for purposes of relaying an e-mail, through use of a certificate; if the user cannot be authenticated, immediately terminating the method without approval of relaying; determining a certificate issuer for the now-authenticated user; if the certificate issuer is unknown to the system, immediately terminating the method without approval of relaying; determining whether relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate issuer; if relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate issuer, immediately terminating the method with approval of relaying; determining whether relaying is allowed based on identity of the user as a certificate subject; and if relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate subject, terminating the method with approval of relaying, otherwise terminating the method without approval of relaying.