Patent ID: 7054417

Claim:
A network interface device for processing a telephone call, the network interface device comprising: a first communication interface coupled to at least one of a wireless phone network, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a satellite phone network, and a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) network, wherein the first communication interface receives the telephone call from any of a plurality of callers remote to the network interface device; a second communication interface coupled to one or more phones at a user location, wherein: the one or more phones are associated with a telephone number, and the plurality of callers can call the one or more phones with the telephone number; a telephone switch coupled to both of the first communication interface and second communication interface, wherein the telephone switch optionally routes an incoming phone call to the second communication interface if one or more access control rules permit routing the incoming phone call to the second communication interface; and a controller that analyzes the one or more access control rules which comprise either 1) routing the incoming phone call from the first communication interface to the second communication interface, 2) routing the incoming phone call to a voice response system, or 3) preventing the incoming phone call from reaching the second communication interface, wherein the one or more phones ring when the incoming call is routed to the second communication interface, wherein the controller routes the incoming phone call to a voice response system which queries a caller of the incoming phone call to record a greeting, and on a subsequent phone call from the caller routed to the second communication interface, a ring tone for the subsequent call comprises the greeting; and wherein the second communication interface comprises both a PSTN interface and an IP network interface, and at least one phone coupled to the PSTN interface and at least one phone coupled to the IP network interface simultaneously participate in the subsequent call.