Patent ID: 8335498

Claim:
A method, comprising: maintaining, by a server that includes one or more processors, a plurality of fax messages associated with a user, each fax message of the plurality of fax messages having a state that indicates at least a status of read or unread for the fax message; automatically deleting fax messages of the plurality of fax messages after a predetermined amount of time; causing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connection to be established between the server and a phone that serves as a client through which the plurality of fax messages are viewable; identifying states of one or more fax messages at the server; identifying states of one or more corresponding fax messages at the phone that serves as the client; and performing one or more synchronization actions, using the HTTP connection, to synchronize the one or more fax messages at the server and the one or more corresponding fax messages at the phone that serves as the client, wherein the one or more synchronization actions include: when a new fax message has been added at the server, cause the new fax message to be added at the phone that serves as the client, when the state of a particular fax message at the server has been changed to indicate a status of read, and the state of the particular fax message at the phone that serves as the client indicates a status of unread, cause the state of the particular fax message at the phone that serves as the client to be changed to also indicate the status of read, when the state of a particular fax message at the phone that serves as the client has been changed to indicate a status of read, and the state of the particular fax message at the server indicates a status of unread, cause the state of the particular fax message at the server to also be changed to indicate the status of read, and when an existing fax message has been deleted at the server, cause the existing fax message to be deleted at the phone that serves as the client.