Network telephone system and methods therefor
View Patent ↗One embodiment of the present invention includes a telephony interface, a network interface and a local area network (LAN). The telephony interface provides connectivity between one or more netphones and an external telephone network such as a PSTN telephone system. The network interface provides connectivity between one or more computers and an external computer network such as the Internet. The local area network provides interconnectivity between the netphone(s), the computer(s), the telephony interface and the network interface. In some embodiments, there may be two or more netphones which can communicate with each other internally via the LAN, in addition to communicating with the external telephone network. Similarly, there may be two or more computers that can also communicate with each other internally via the same LAN, in addition to the external computer network. By combining both the internal and external connectivity needs of both the netphone(s) and computer(s), the entry cost of installing both the netphone(s) and the computer(s) is dramatically lowered. In addition, once the network infrastructure has been installed, the existing netphone(s) and computer(s) can be very easily relocated within the network, and new netphone(s) and computer(s) can be added to the network with minimal changes to the network.
1. A method of transmitting a voice message between at least two network telephones interconnected by a network, comprising:
entering a phone number of a second phone into a first phone and sending the phone number over the network;
sending a voice message storage request command to the second phone, the second phone forwarding the storage request command to a voice mail device connected to the network;
receiving a call-connected message from the second phone, the second phone forwarding the call-connected message received from the voice mail device;
receiving a voice data greeting from the second phone, the second phone forwarding the voice data greeting received from the voice mail device;
sending a voice message to the second phone, the second phone forwarding the voice message to the voice mail device; and
sending a call-disconnect message to the second phone, the second phone forwarding the call-disconnect message to the voice mail device.
2. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising sending a voice mail message available command from the voice mail device to the second phone.
3. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising activating a voice message indicator of the second phone.
4. A method for handling voice calls and voice messages between a first network phone and a second network phone interconnected by a network, the method comprising:
entering a phone number of the second network phone at the first network phone;
sending a ring command from the first network phone to the second network phone over the network;
if the first network phone receives a call connect command from the second network phone, then sending voice data from the first network phone to the second network phone;
else if a total number of rings at the second network phone exceed a ring threshold, then:
sending a voicemail storage request from the second network phone to a voicemail device over the distributed-directory network;
receiving a voicemail greeting at the second phone from the voicemail device;
sending the voicemail greeting from the second network phone to the first network phone; and
receiving a voice message at the second network phone from the first network phone, the second network phone forwarding the voice message to the voice mail device.
5. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising sending a voice message available command from the voicemail device to the second network phone.
6. The method as recited in claim 5 further comprising activating a voice message indicator of the second network phone.