Patent ID: 7421065

Claim:
An internet terminal comprising: a voice signal input/output terminal via which voice signals are output to and input from an external telephone terminal including a communications transceiver, wherein the voice signals are not input from the external telephone terminal to the voice signal input/output terminal when the voice signals are to be transmitted to another telephone terminal that is not connected to another internet terminal; a control signal input/output terminal via which control signals are output to and input from the telephone terminal; a voice signal relaying unit that performs a relaying process for transmitting voice signals received via the voice signal input/output terminal from the telephone terminal to another internet terminal via an internet and for outputting voice signals received from the another internet terminal via the internet to the telephone terminal via the voice signal input/output terminal; a ring signal output unit that outputs a ring signal via the control signal input/output terminal to the telephone terminal when a ring signal for an internet call is received by the voice signal relaying unit from the another internet terminal via the internet; a determining unit that determines whether a ring response signal is received via the control signal input/output terminal after the ring signal output unit has output the ring signal to the telephone terminal, the ring response signal being output from the telephone terminal in response to the ring signal; a message output unit that outputs a predetermined outgoing message to the another internet terminal through the voice signal relaying unit, the outgoing message prompting a caller at the another internet terminal to leave a message; a memory that stores voice signals received by the voice signal relaying unit from the another internet terminal; and a control unit that controls the voice signal relaying unit and the message output unit, wherein the control unit controls the voice signal relaying unit to perform the relaying process when the determining unit determines that the ring response signal has been received from the telephone terminal, and the control unit controls the message output unit to output the outgoing message to the another internet terminal and stores voice signals received by the voice signal relaying unit from the another internet terminal into the memory when the determining unit determines that the ring response signal was not received from the telephone terminal.