Personal control of address assignment and greeting options for multiple BRG ports

A broadband residential gateway located at a customer premises and connected to an Internet Protocol based packet network supporting Internet Protocol telephony service, said broadband residential gateway comprising:

• multiple ports identified by multiple designations with at least one end user device connected to each port,
• a processing unit which provides a greeting and, upon receiving a signal including one of said multiple designations from said Internet Protocol based packet network, said processing unit routes said signal to one of said multiple ports depending on a port selected by an end user using said greeting, and
• a transceiver,
• wherein said broadband residential gateway displays or announces an identity of said one of said multiple ports selected by said end user.

A method of associating a directory number with multiple ports on a broadband residential gateway located at a customer premises and connected to an Internet Protocol based packet network supporting Internet Protocol telephony service, said method comprising the steps of:

• mapping said directory number with said multiple ports on said broadband residential gateway,
• receiving an incoming call from said Internet Protocol based packet network,
• providing a greeting,
• selecting a port using said greeting, and
• directing said incoming call to said selected port,
• wherein each of said multiple ports includes a unique identity and displaying or announcing said unique identity of said selected port.