Patent ID: 7430613

Claim:
An image communication system comprising: a plurality of image communications apparatuses, each of which possessing a telephone number belonging to a first category of telephone numbers, a telephone number belonging to a second category of telephone numbers and a corresponding network address; a first address supplying device storing telephone numbers belonging to the first category of telephone numbers and not the second category of telephone numbers, the corresponding network address of each one of the plurality of image communications apparatuses and a relationship between each one the telephone numbers belonging to the first category of telephone numbers and each one of the corresponding network addresses; a second address supplying device storing telephone numbers belonging to the second category of telephone numbers and not the first category of telephone numbers, the corresponding network address of each one of the plurality of image communications apparatuses and a relationship between each one of the telephone numbers belonging to the second category of telephone numbers and each one of the corresponding network addresses; and a judging section included in each of the plurality image communications apparatuses, said judging section included in one of the plurality of image communications apparatuses: (1) determining whether a telephone number input to the one of the plurality of image communications apparatuses belongs to the first category of telephone numbers or to the second category of telephone numbers, and (2) if the input telephone number belongs to the first category of telephone numbers, directing the input telephone number to the first address supplying device and (3) if the input telephone number belongs to the second category of telephone numbers, directing the input telephone number to the second address supplying device, wherein said first address supplying device provides the corresponding network address of the input telephone number to the one of the plurality of image communication apparatuses if the input telephone number belongs to the first category of telephone numbers, and said second address supplying device providing the corresponding network address of the input telephone number to the one of the plurality of image communication apparatuses if the input telephone number belongs to the second category of telephone numbers, and wherein said first address supplying device and said second address supplying device are separated by a computer network.