METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTERNET TELEPHONY

A telephony method and apparatus for communicating over a network. The apparatus has a device for receiving a signal representing a telephone number from a digital network. In addition, the apparatus includes a database containing a plurality of telephone numbers and a corresponding plurality of network addresses. The database is coupled to the receiving device. The apparatus also includes a device for transmitting, over the digital network, a signal representing an internet address corresponding to the telephone number. The transmitting device is coupled between the database and the digital network. The telephony method includes configuring a local encoder for internet telephony and querying and address mapping server for a destination address. The telephony method also includes searching a database associated with the address mapping server for the destination address and returning the destination address from the address mapping server to the local encoder. In addition, the telephony method includes establishing a connection between the local encoder and the destination address.