Patent ID: 7715539

Claim:
An apparatus for providing a residential telephone system, the system being electrically coupled to an external telephone service facility and electrically coupled to a user telephone, the system being configurable from a user of the user telephone contemporaneous with processing of an incoming call signal from a calling party, the apparatus comprising: a telephone facility interface for receiving an incoming call signal from the external telephone facility and transmitting an outgoing call signal to the external telephone facility; a direct access module coupled to the telephone facility interface for processing the incoming call signal and the outgoing call signal; a codec coupled to the direct access module converting an analog signal to a digital signal and converting the digital signal to the analog signal; a digital signal processor coupled to the codec for receiving the incoming call signal and transmitting a recorded announcement, a prompt, and a message; a memory storing one or more recorded announcements, one or more prompts, one or more messages as received by the digital signal processor, and an operating code, said digital signal processor and memory cooperating to operate in a messaging module mode; a ringing subscriber line interface circuit coupled to the digital signal processor providing telephone interface functions; a user telephone interface for electrically coupling to the user telephone, said user telephone interface transmitting the incoming call signal to the user telephone; a relay electrically coupled to the telephone facility interface, the ringing subscriber line interface circuit, and the user telephone interface, said relay having two mutually exclusive states, a default state electrically coupling the external telephone facility to the user telephone, and a second state electrically coupling the ringing subscriber line interface circuit to the user telephone; and a processor coupled to the direct access module, the digital signal processor, the codec, the ringing subscriber line interface circuit and relay, said processor utilizing the operating code having an administrative parameter for controlling an operation of the direct access module, digital signal processor, codec, ringing subscriber line interface circuit and relay, said processor enabling a specification of the administrative parameter without initiating an off-hook state on the external communication facility.