Patent ID: 7336653

Claim:
A method for allowing a user connected to the Internet to receive notification and caller identification information associated with an incoming call from a calling party to the user, the method comprising: receiving an incoming call; sending a query to a registration server to determine an Internet status of the user, the Internet status of the user comprising whether the user is connected to the Internet; receiving a response from the registration server indicating that the user is connected to the Internet, the registration server having been updated by a heartbeat server regarding the Internet status of the user, the heartbeat server having received heartbeat messages from client software when the user is connected to the Internet, the response received from the registration server comprising an IP address and user information associated with the user's Internet session; sending a message to the client software on a device of the user, the message comprising notification and caller identification information associated with the incoming call; receiving a disposition selection of the user; and handling the call according to the user's disposition selection.