METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING COMMUNICATION OF OPEN-TYPE SYSTEM IN PLURAL-USER ENVIRONMENT

摘要

PURPOSE: To enable a user of a processing system for open system interconnection(OSI) mail to communicate with a user of another mail processing system and also use functions relating to an OSI system. CONSTITUTION: The function of a gateway 20 is extended so as to provide the processing function of complete OSI mail 26 in addition to a direct converting function. A mail handler 10 is extended 28 to process both OSI mail and conventional mail sent by users of arbitrary mail systems 22 and 36. Further, a sendmail constituent element 12 recognizes an OSI address and specifies a proper destination for a relative message. Mixed mode addressing is also extended so that an address character string contains OSI type addresses including constituent elements from several different networks of TCP/IP, UUCP, etc.