Patent ID: 7532710

Claim:
A method comprising: storing, at a first voicemail server, a voicemail message, received from a calling party for a called party, on behalf of a second voicemail server; determining, by the first voicemail server, whether the second voicemail server is available following storing the voicemail message, the determining including: transferring the stored voicemail message to the second voicemail server when the second voicemail server is determined to be available; transferring a status message from the first voicemail server to the second voicemail server, determining that the second voicemail server is unavailable when no reply message is received from the second voicemail server, determining that the second voicemail server is available when a reply message is received from the second voicemail server; entering, via the called party, a predetermined sequence of characters at a network device; determining, in response to the called party entering the predetermined sequence of characters, whether to provide the called party with access to the voicemail message based on a network address associated with the called party's network device by comparing the network address associated with the called party's network device to a stored list of network addresses; and providing access to the voicemail message when the network address associated with the called party's network device matches a network address in the stored list of network addresses.