Repeating device, telephone set, and recording medium

1. A repeating device for relaying communication to a plurality of receiver-side telephones connected to a local area network;

said repeating device comprising a function, effected at a time of an incoming call to be connected, for requesting that each receiver-side telephone unit of said plurality of receiver-side telephones then respond indicating their instantaneous operational capability to receive the incoming call, a function for selecting, out of the plurality of receiver-side telephones that responded, a receiver side telephone unit to which the incoming call is to be connected, and a function for notifying the caller-side telephone of the address of the selected receiver-side telephone unit to which the incoming call is to be generated, before the incoming call to the receiver side telephone unit is generated.

2. A repeating device according to claim 1 , wherein said repeating device comprises a function for receiving a transfer request from a user.

3. A telephone/router pair capable of assisting a call to a plurality of receiver-side telephones connected to a local area network, without a caller-side telephone designating the address of a receiver-side telephone unit;

said telephone/router pair comprising a function, effected at a time of a call to be connected, for requesting that each receiver-side telephone unit of said plurality of receiver-side telephones then respond indicating their instantaneous operational capability to receive the call, a function for selecting, out of the plurality of receiver-side telephones that responded, a receiver-side telephone unit to which the call is to be connected, a function for notifying the caller-side telephone of the address of the selected receiver-side telephone unit to which the incoming call is to be generated, before the incoming call to the receiver side telephone unit is generated, and

the caller-side telephone thereafter being enabled to effect a function for generating the call addressed to said selected receiver-side telephone unit.

4. A telephone connected to a local area network;

said telephone comprising a function, effected at a time of receiving a call transfer request from a user of a caller-side telephone, for requesting that each receiver-side telephone unit of a plurality of receiver-side telephones then respond indicating their instantaneous operational capability to receive a call, a function for selecting, out of the plurality of receiver-side telephones that responded, a receiver-side telephone unit to which the call is to be connected, and a function for notifying the caller-side telephone of the address of the selected receiver-side telephone unit to which the incoming call is to be generated, before the incoming call to the receiver side telephone unit is generated.

5. A recording medium capable of being read by a machine and storing a program to be executed by said machine, to assist a caller-side telephone to make an incoming call without having to specify the address of a receiver-side telephone unit,

wherein said recording medium comprises programming to effect at least one of:

a virtual device for relaying communication to a plurality of receiver-side telephones connected to a local area network, for effecting a function at a time of an incoming call to be connected, for requesting that each receiver-side telephone unit of said plurality of receiver-side telephones then respond indicating their instantaneous operational capability to receive the incoming call, a function for selecting, out of the plurality of receiver-side telephones that responded, a receiver-side telephone unit to which the incoming call is to be connected, and a function for notifying the caller-side telephone of the address of the selected receiver-side telephone unit to which the incoming call is to be generated, before the incoming call to the receiver side telephone unit is generated;

a virtual telephone/router pair connected to a local area network, for effecting a function, a time of a call to be connected, for requesting that each receiver-side telephone unit of said plurality of receiver-side telephones then respond indicating their instantaneous operational capability to receive the call, a function for selecting, out of the plurality of receiver-side telephones that responded, a receiver-side telephone unit to which the call is to be connected, a function for notifying the caller-side telephone of the address of the selected receiver-side telephone unit to which the incoming call is to be generated, before the incoming call to the receiver side telephone unit is generated, to thereafter enable the caller-side telephone to effect a function for generating the call addressed to said selected receiver-side telephone unit; or

a telephone capable of generating a call to a plurality of receiver-side telephones connected to a local area network, for effecting a function at a time of receiving a call transfer request from a user of a caller-side telephone, for requesting that each receiver-side telephone unit of a plurality of receiver-side telephones then respond indicating their instantaneous operational capability to receive a call, a function for selecting, out of the plurality of receiver-side telephones that responded, a receiver-side telephone unit to which the call is to be connected, and a function for notifying the caller-side telephone of the address of the selected receiver-side telephone unit to which the incoming call is to be generated, before the incoming call to the receiver side telephone unit is generated.