Patent ID: 8285267

Claim:
A method, comprising, causing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connection to be established between a phone of a user that serves as a client and a server that maintains a mailbox associated with the user, the mailbox to include one or more fax messages each having properties that indicate a sender of the fax message and a state that indicates at least a status of read or unread for the fax message, the phone that serves as the client to permit the user to view the one or more fax messages included in the mailbox; using the HTTP connection to receive, at the phone that serves as the client, data that identifies states of the 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, by a synchronization application executed on one or more processors, one or more synchronization actions using the HTTP connection to synchronize the states of the one or more fax messages at the server and the states of the one or more corresponding fax messages at the phone that serves as the client, the one or more synchronization actions comprising: when the state of a fax message at the server has been changed to indicate a status of read, and the state of the fax message at the phone that serves as the client indicates a status of read, cause the state of the fax message at the phone that serves as the client to be changed to also indicate the status of read, and when the state of a fax message at the phone that serves as the client has been changed to indicate a status of read, and the state of the fax message at the server indicates a status of unread, cause the state of the fax message at the server to be changed to also indicate the status of read.