Automatic voicemail announcements with multimedia attachments

A network telephone system comprising:

• a distributed network;
• a network call processor connected to said distributed network, said network call processor having a memory for system settings and administration information;
• a telephone line network interface connected to a telephone line and connected to said distributed network for receiving packets in the same collision domain as said distributed network or connected to a network with a different collision domain or a wide area network for receiving packets for said distributed network via said network with a different collision domain or via said wide area network;
• a plurality of network telephones, each network telephone being connected to said network and sending packets to and receiving packets from the network, including control packets from the network call processor and telephone voice packets from telephone line signals at said telephone line network interface, said network call processor monitoring said system;
• and
• sets of administrator data packets each of said sets including contact telephone data of a network administrator and voice packets, said contact data of a contact telephone corresponding to a network telephone address, or an address for sending packets to the telephone line network interface and a telephone number of a telephone connected to the public switched telephone network of the telephone line, said voice packets having human speech message content, said network call processor receiving alert data during monitoring including one or more of status data, fault data and error data and selecting one of said sets said administrator data packets based on a predefined correlation of said human speech message content to said one or more of status data, fault data and error data and making a telephone call including initiating the call to the contact telephone by sending the selected packets in response to said alert data including voice packets to the contact telephone based on said contact telephone data with receipt of the voice packets at the contact telephone of the network administrator upon acceptance of the telephone call.

A network telephone system comprising:

• a distributed network;
• a network call processor connected to said network, said network call processor having a memory for system settings and administration information;
• a telephone line network interface connected to a telephone line and connected to said network;
• a plurality of network telephones, each network telephone being connected to said network and sending packets to and receiving packets from the network, including control packets from the network call processor and telephone voice packets from telephone line signals at said telephone line network interface, said network call processor monitoring said system and issuing a notification upon the system reaching one or more defined criteria, wherein the notification includes sending one of several prompts from the network call processor to one of the network telephones, a telephone connected via a public system or a connected computer or network device and said prompt includes voice data providing an audio message wherein said network includes an Ethernet path having a collision domain with said network telephones connected thereto and further comprising another Ethernet path having a collision domain providing a connection between said network call processor and said line card, said another Ethernet path being connected to said Ethernet path.

A network process, comprising:

• providing a network system including a network processor, system data storage and devices connected to the network;
• providing a plurality of network telephones, each network telephone being connected to said network and sending packets to and receiving packets from said network and converting said voice packets to analogue voice signals at said one or more of said network telephones for said call;
• using said processor as a network call processor including monitoring a network telephone system, said network call processor sending packets to said network including address data for one or more of said network telephones;
• providing a telephone line network interface connected to said network and providing a connection to a public switched telephone network;
• monitoring at least the status of the network system with the network processor for alert data including one or more of status data, fault data and error data;
• generating sets of administrator data packets and saving said sets of administrator data packets, said administrator data packets including contact telephone data for one or more network administrator and voice packets, said contact telephone data including data of a contact telephone with a corresponding address of one of said network telephones or an address of said telephone line network interface and a telephone number of a telephone connected to the public switched telephone network, said voice packets having different human speech message content for each of said sets of administrator data packets;
• and
• making a telephone call to the contact telephone including issuing an alert voice message upon said network processor receiving alert data and including selecting one of said sets of administrator data packets based on a predefined correlation of said sets of administrator data packets to said one or more of status data, fault data and error data and sending the selected packets in response to said alert data including sending said voice packets with voice data saved in system data storage based on said contact telephone data for one network administrator saved in the system data storage and receiving the voice packets at the contact telephone of the network administrator upon acceptance of the telephone call.