Abstract: A conference organizer uses conference software to define a conference and to store conference information on the organizer's computer system. The stored conference information includes a list of attendees, and a personal proxy mailbox for each attendee. Each attendee has a wireless device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA). The organizer's computer system includes a wireless communication station that can communicate in wireless fashion with the wireless devices of the attendees at the conference. During the conference, an attendee uses his/her wireless device to access the conference information, select another attendee from the list of attendees, and send the selected attendee a message such that the message is stored in the personal proxy mailbox of the selected attendee. The use of personal proxy mailboxes allows attendees to send messages to one another and to receive messages from one another without divulging their primary email addresses.

Abstract: A mail server collects messages from a number of user accounts and presents them to the user from a single location. The user can set the mail server to block unwanted messages and to forward others to various receiving devices, including mobile telephones and pagers. Forwarded messages are automatically reformatted for the receiving device, while a copy of the original message is retained. The retained copy can be viewed later if the user is interested in message content that was not available to the wireless device. The user can also use the wireless device to forward the original message to another receiving device. In the case of forwarding, the saved original message and not the reformatted message is sent to the forwarding address. Some embodiments include an email agent that automatically pushes messages from intranet clients to the mail server through a firewall, thereby enabling the mail server to consolidate messages from intranet and Internet sources.