Claims
- 1. A network based voice mail apparatus comprising:
a) a network based voice mail system including a user voice mail box; b) at least one remote answering device coupled to a user's incoming telephone line; c) a telephone network providing three-way calling service, wherein the remote answering device answers an incoming call after a predetermined number of rings, and conferences in the user's voice mail box in the network based voice mail system using the three-way calling service of the telephone network; and d) a paging system being coupled to the network based voice mail system, said network based voice mail system notifying the paging system when a message is received by the network based voice mail system that has not simultaneously been received by the at least one remote answering device, said paging system transmitting a paging signal to the at least one remote answering device indicating a number of messages in the network based voice mail system.
- 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an Internet interface via which a user can access the user voice mail box.
- 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the Internet interface comprises a World Wide Web site that the user can access using a personal computer running a Web browser to review messages in the user's voice mail box in the network based voice mail system.
- 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of remote answering devices, each disposed at different locations and different incoming telephone lines, wherein each of the plurality of remote answering devices accesses the same user's voice mail box.
- 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a wireless remote answering device being couplable to the network based voice mail system via a wireless communications network and including command functionality similar to the remote answering device coupled to the user's incoming telephone line.
- 6. In a network based voice mail system that has a user voice mail box that is accessible over a telephone network via a predetermined telephone number and an optional predetermined access code, a remote answering device comprising:
a) a modem answering an incoming call upon detecting a predetermined number of rings, dialing the user's voice mail box using a three-way calling service and conferencing the incoming call with the user's voice mail box; b) a memory storing the predetermined telephone number and the optional predetermined access code; c) a processor controlling the modem and passing the predetermined telephone number and optional predetermined access code from the memory to the modem; and d) a paging receiver receiving a paging signal that indicates that a message exists in the network based voice mail system that was not received by the remote answering device, and outputting a numerical code to the processor indicating a message count.
- 7. The device according to claim 6, further comprising a speaker coupled to the modem and outputting a voice signal from the incoming call to the speaker.
- 8. The device according to claim 6, further comprising a message number display coupled to the processor displaying a count of the messages in the network based voice mail system, wherein the paging interface receives a page from the network based voice mail system indicating that a message has been received in the user's voice mail box without passing through the remote answering device, said paging interface outputs the message count to the processor, which updates the message number display.
- 9. The device according to claim 6, wherein the processor detects a change in an impedance of the telephone line, which indicates that a telephone extension has been picked up, and then outputs a signal to drop the voice mail box from the conference call.
- 10. The device according to claim 6, further comprising a plurality of control buttons coupled to the processor.
- 11. The device according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of control buttons include at least one selected from the group consisting of play, stop, delete, record, skip, fast, slow, save, and rewind.
- 12. The device according to claim 6, further comprising a telephone built into the device.
- 13. The device according to claim 6, further comprising a number keypad for entering in the predetermined telephone number of the user's voice mail box and for entering in the optional predetermined access codes for accessing the user's voice mail box.
- 14. The device according to claim 6, further comprising a memory storing a local greeting, which is played to a caller during an incoming call while the network based voice mail system is being accessed.
- 15. The device according to claim 7, wherein the message being recorded by the caller is simultaneously being played over the speaker.
- 16. The device according to claim 6, further comprising a play button, wherein the processor initiates a call to the user's voice mail box upon the play button being pressed and the processor queries the user's voice mail box to determine how many messages remain in the user's voice mail box, and if different than those contained in a count maintained by the processor, the processor synchronizes its count to that of the user's voice mail box.
- 17. The device according to claim 16, wherein the modem receives data from the user's voice mail box while simultaneously receiving voice signals.
- 18. The device according to claim 16, wherein the processor periodically calls in to the voice mail box to synchronize its message indicator.
- 19. The device according to claim 6, wherein the remote answering device further comprises a tape recorder, which records incoming messages simultaneously along with the network based voice mail system.
- 20. The device according to claim 6, wherein the network based voice mail system indicates to a caller that the call to the user did not go through if the call to the user does not get through to the remote answering device.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/040,668 filed Mar. 18, 1998.
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09040668 |
Mar 1998 |
US |
Child |
09898023 |
Jul 2001 |
US |