Patent ID: 7420959

Claim:
A telephone apparatus for connection to a computer network through a telephone network to establish telephone calls via a server of the computer network, said telephone apparatus comprising: a first telephone set including: a first audio input/output means for converting input voice into a first digital audio signal and for converting an input first digital audio signal into output voice, and a first CPU that executes processing for connecting said first telephone set of said server and selectively compressing or expanding said first digital audio signal into first audio data; a second telephone set including: a second audio input/output means for converting input voice into a second digital audio signal and for converting an input second digital audio signal into output voice, a second CPU that executes processing for connecting said second telephone set to said server and processing for selectively compressing or expanding said second digital audio signal into second audio data, a modem for connecting to a single telephone line of said telephone network, and connection control means connected between said modem and said first CPU and said second CPU to enable said first CPU to transmit and receive said first audio data via said server and said second CPU to transmit and receive said second audio data via said server, wherein said first audio data of said first telephone set and said second audio data of said second telephone set are formed as data packets including address data for communicating with said first CPU of said first telephone set and said second CPU of said second telephone set, wherein said server assigns a first address to said first telephone set and a second address to said second telephone set as said address data, and wherein said data packets include said first and second addresses in addition to said first audio data and said second audio data, and said connection control means recognizes said first and second addresses to deliver said data packets to one of said first CPU and said second CPU in response to said first and second addresses.