WORLD WIDE VOICE MAIL SYSTEM

Using the Internet World Wide Web (WWW) network 320, a WWW Client 310 can communicate with a WWW Server 330 to request access to a user's voice mail. In order to satisfy this request, the user enters their voice mail mailbox number, and activates an appropriate hyperlink. The WWW Server then launches an application, MSG Client 350, which in turn communicates with an application, MSG Server 370, that runs in conjunction with the voice mail system 380, 385, 390. In response to an initial message from the MSG Client, the MSG Server returns information about all voice mail messages within the specified mailbox, which are displayed at the WWW Client. This display includes a hyperlink to each message in the mailbox. Thus a user can select a message from within the mailbox by activating this hyperlink, which prompts the WWW Server to again launch MSG Client. This in turn sends a second message to MSG Server, which responds by returning the actual audio data for the selected message to the MSG Client, which is forwarded onto the WWW Client via the WWW Server. The WWW Client then plays out the audio data, allowing the user to hear his or her selected voice mail message.