Virtual telephone extension

A system comprising:

• a computer server that includes a relational database storing association information between user identifiers and communication device identifiers;
• a plurality of VoIP-enabled communication devices (“communication devices”), each of the communication devices including circuitry to effect VoIP calls on behalf of certain system users sharing common user-identification data and related sets of the user identifiers, and each of the communication devices is to route the VoIP calls in response to login data provided to authenticate and differentiate between users for each call to be routed by said each of the plurality of communication devices;
• a plurality of gateways, each of the gateways including communications circuitry configured to connect or route certain of the VoIP calls between the computer server and certain ones of the communication devices, based on information associated with the VoIP calls;
• a call router circuit to route VoIP telephone calls to particular ones of the communication devices in response to the association with the user identifiers;
• and
• the computer server to:
• receive database modification instructions via at least one of the plurality of gateways and in response to the instructions, modify, in the relational database, the association information to include an association between a particular user identifier from among the user identifiers and a particular communication device from among the communication devices;
• receive over the Internet, account login data on behalf of a corresponding one of the communication devices;
• identify, based upon the account login data, the particular user identifier stored in the relational database, wherein the computer server is to access user profile information associated with a private branch exchange (PBX) that is remotely situated relative to the computer server and to be used at a remote location to program the relational database;
• identify, based upon a second user account login data associated with a second communication device, a plurality of user identifiers from the user identifiers stored in the relational database, wherein each of the plurality of user identifiers is associated with one of the communication devices;
• and
• modify, in the relational database, the association information to include an association between the plurality of user identifiers and the second communication device.

A data storage device including instructions which, in response to being executed, prompt or cause a method of being carried out, the method comprising:

• using a computer server that includes a relational database storing association information between user identifiers and identifiers of communication devices including VOID-enabled communication devices and a plurality of gateways;
• connecting or routing certain VoIP calls between the computer server and certain ones of the communication devices, based on information associated with VoIP calls involving the VoIP-enabled communication devices;
• routing VoIP calls to particular ones of the communication devices in response to the association with particular ones of the user identifiers;
• receiving database modification instructions via at least one of the plurality of gateways and in response to the database modification instructions, modifying, in the relational database, the association information to include an association between a particular user identifier from among the user identifiers and a particular communication device from among the communication devices;
• receiving over the Internet, account login data on behalf of a corresponding one of the communication devices;
• identifying, based upon the account login data, the particular user identifier stored in the relational database, and accessing user profile information associated with a private branch exchange (PBX) that is remotely situated relative to the computer server and to be used at a remote location to program the relational database;
• identifying, based upon a second user account login data associated with a second communication device, a plurality of user identifiers from the user identifiers stored in the relational database, wherein each of the plurality of user identifiers is associated with one of the communication devices;
• and
• modifying, in the relational database, the association information to include an association between the plurality of user identifiers and the second communication device.