Patent ID: 8509416

Claim:
A system that enables a calling party to communicate with a called party over a communications network, the system comprising: (a) a dynamic line assignment module that can dynamically assign to the calling party a free and unused call-in number that is not permanently associated with either the calling party or the called party, by automatically selecting that call-in number from a large group of possible call-in numbers; (b) a web page storage device that is operable to send, over the internet, (i) web pages to a calling party device, the web pages including a data entry screen into which a user enters a required VoIP user name with which communication is sought and (ii) the free and unused call-in number assigned by the dynamic line assignment module; (c) a conversion device that is operable to receive over the internet, from the calling party device, the VoIP user name and can cause the altering of call forwarding settings at a switch, such that a call from the calling party device to the call-in number assigned by the dynamic line assignment module will be automatically forwarded to a device associated with the VoIP user name of the called party; and in which the conversion device: (a) extracts VoIP user name sent by the calling party device and converts the associated command into a language the switch understands; (b) sets-up a call forwarding of a dynamically assigned call-in phone number of the switch to such specific VoIP user name associated with a specific ISP user account; (c) then converts the dynamically assigned call-in phone number, which has been call forwarded to VoIP user name, into a command to dial that call-in phone number, in a form that the calling party device web browser understands; (d) sends that command to dial that call-in phone number to the calling party device in the form of a specific web page with that command embedded in it, so that the calling party only has to click on a web page link to cause the calling party device to automatically dial the call-in phone number, which is embedded in the command associated with the web page link.