Patent ID: 8510799

Claim:
A communication system comprising: a plurality of communication terminals; and a management apparatus interconnected via a network, said management apparatus including a user authentication processing section configured to process user authentication in response to an authentication operation performed by a user using any one of said communication terminals, a first information management section configured to manage user information about said user authenticated by said user authentication processing section in association with terminal information about the communication terminal used by said user, a second information management section configured to manage communication information including the user information about a plurality of users with intent to communicate with one another, and a connection control section configured to be used if said second information management section manages the communication information including the user information about said user authenticated by said user authentication processing section and if said first information management section manages the user information about another user as part of said communication information, said connection control section then sending the terminal information about another communication terminal corresponding to the user information about the other user managed by said first information management section, to the communication terminal identified by the terminal information managed by said first information management section in association with the user information about the authenticated user, wherein said connection control section does not send a user name list to the communication terminal identified by the terminal information managed by said first information management section in association with the user information about the authenticated user, and wherein said connection control section checks whether said first information management section manages information about the other user before sending the terminal information about the another communication terminal corresponding to the user information about the other user.