Patent ID: 7796741

Claim:
A call-connection control unit for exerting call-connection control for personal computers connected on a same local area network (LAN) as the call-connection control unit, the call-connection control unit comprising: correspondence means for storing entries pairing a correspondence between an identifier for identifying a telephone and an identifier for identifying a personal computer designated to handle call-connection operations of the telephone, for each of a plurality of telephones and personal computers which have been paired with each other; searching means for, on receiving an outgoing call-connection request from an outgoing-side personal computer connected on the LAN, using the entries to search for an outgoing-side telephone of the plurality of telephones, corresponding to the outgoing-side personal computer; means for transmitting a first incoming call-connection request to the outgoing-side telephone: means for transmitting a second incoming call-connection request, responsive to receiving a predetermined first response back from the outgoing-side telephone in response to the first incoming call-connection request, to an incoming-side telephone which is a target of the outgoing call-connection request; and means for putting the outgoing-side telephone and the incoming-side telephone in a telephone call-enabled state responsive to receiving a predetermined second response back from the incoming-side telephone in response to the second incoming call-connection request.