to avoid having the recipient bombarded with alert messages the user and or the system can set a frequency or time limit during which the recipient will not receive a second alert message if it has already received an alert message during that time frame in accordance with one aspect of the present invention that time period can be twenty 20 seconds a user or recipient can stop and or restart alert messages by sending an alert message to a telephone number associated with the message system in another aspect the system can refrain from sending the alert message based on a time of day e g a user or administrator can deem certain times of day u201c off limits u201d for sending alert messages in another aspect the system can refrain from sending the alert message based a number of messages sent to recipient e g an hourly daily or weekly threshold an alert message according to one non limiting example is shown in fig2 the alert message may include one or more of the following an indicator that a message exists for the recipient the name or other information identifying the sender and a hyperlink to the message.