AUTOMATIC NOTIFICATION OF RECEIPT OF ELECTRONIC MAIL (E-MAIL) VIA TELEPHONE SYSTEM WITHOUT REQUIRING LOG-ON TO E-MAIL SERVER

The automatic e-mail notification system provides for the automatic notification of an e-mail recipient of the presence of e-mail in the recipient's e-mail box on a remote e-mail server. The automatic e-mail notification system comprises an e-mail server connected through a computer network to one or more computer systems for receiving e-mail from the computer systems. The e-mail server is also connected through the computer network to a mail notification server and a notification device at a recipient's location. The notification device is activated and deactivated by a signal from the mail notification server. The e-mail server generates and sends a data signal containing a message received signal or a message retrieved signal to the mail notification server. The mail notification server in turn generates a notification signal which is sent using the subscriber's phone number to the subscriber's telephone node thereby activating or deactivating the notification device in response to a respective one of the message received or message retrieved signals. The mail notification server may be included as part of a telephone system voice messaging system. In this case the mail notification server controls the voice messaging system which generates and sends the notification signal.