Patent ID: 8032593

Claim:
A communications system comprising: a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices each comprising a respective software client using at least one of a plurality of different operating protocols as configuration commands and instructions for accessing electronic mail (email) to send at least one access request; a plurality of email data storage devices for storing email data files, each email data file being associated with a respective mobile wireless communications device, each email data file having a unique identification (UID) associated therewith, and each email data storage device using at least one of the plurality of different operating protocols; and a protocol interface device comprising a protocol converter module for communicating with the respective software client of each of said plurality of mobile wireless communications devices using respective operating protocols thereof, and a protocol engine module for communicating with said plurality of email data storage devices using respective operating protocols thereof, said protocol engine module also for initiating, at a first time, polling of said email data storage devices for DIDs of email data files stored thereon to maintain a DID list, and for cooperating with said protocol converter module to provide the DID list to the respective software client of each of said plurality of mobile wireless communications devices upon receiving access requests therefrom, the DID list being provided by the protocol engine module independent of respective ones of the email data files so that the respective ones of the email data files are to be retrieved at a second time different from the first time based upon the UID list, said protocol engine module also initiating polling for a given one of said plurality of mobile wireless communications devices without initiated configuration commands and instructions from said software client thereof, and irrespective of communications with said given mobile wireless communication device.