Patent ID: 6031836
Filing Date: 2000-02-29
Classification: H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
A method of accessing telephony features in a non-telephony client-server network wherein clients and servers communicate with each other via a predefined communications protocol that lacks telephony feature-access commands, comprising the steps of:the client requesting an individual telephony feature by communicating corresponding data with the server via the predefined protocol;the server responding to the communicated data by requesting a provider of the telephony features to provide the individual telephony feature to the client;the server further responding to the communicated data by requesting the client to connect to the provider;in response to the request to connect to the provider, the client effecting a data and control communications connection with the provider;in response to the request from the server to provide the individual telephony feature, the provider providing the individual telephony feature to the client, includingthe provider instructing the client to redirect a data portion of the data and control communications connection from the provider to a communications entity and to maintain a control portion of the data and control communications connection connected to the provider so that the provider can exert control over the client while the client communicates with the entity, andin response to the instruction, the client establishing a communications connection to the communications entity.