A method and system are disclosed for establishing a conference call in an advanced intelligent network comprising a service switching point connected to a plurality telephone stations, a service node having an interactive data system, a conference circuit that includes a plurality of ports to selectively couple telephone stations, and a service control point containing a database. The method including receiving, at the storage node, conference call setup information used to initiate conference calls; forwarding the conference call setup information to the service control point for storage in the database, and contacting each participant to the conference call in accordance with the conference call setup information to couple the participants to the conference call. Participants may be contacted at a plurality of telephone numbers until reached, and one or more of the participants may be prompted for help in locating a missing participant. Voice information may be collected from participants in the call, such as prompting the participant for a password.

Telephony conferences are established within a packet network. Utilization of a plurality of conference bridge resources within the packet network is monitored. A database of user profiles is maintained associating authorized users of the conference bridge resources with respective PIN codes. A host user links to a call manager to initiate a request for a conference session. The host user is authenticated according to a respective one of the user profiles to determine an authenticated PIN code for identifying the conference session. A portion of the conference bridge resources are allocated in response to the authentication. The authenticated PIN code is forwarded to the conference bridge resources. The host user links to the allocated conference bridge resources. A guest user links to the call manager to initiate a request to participate in the conference session. The guest user identifies the authenticated PIN code. The guest user links to the allocated conference bridge resources. The host user and the guest user are bridged via the allocated bridge resources in response to the authenticated PIN code.

A system is disclosed for enabling communication between server resources and a wide spectrum of end-terminals to enable users access to the resources of both converged and non-converged networks via voice and/or electronically generated commands. A configurable distributed conference bridge is incorporated within the converged network architecture model of the present invention. The distributed conference bridge enables local conference resources to be utilized and incorporates external service bureau conference bridge resources when needed to supplement the internal conference bridge resources of a system.

A "Call Me" conference call system includes a multiport conference unit (MCU) interconnected with the public switched telecommunications network (PSTN), a telecommunications switching system also interconnected with the PSTN, a service control point (SCP) or other intelligent network control component having at least a signaling connection to the switching system, a Call Me conference bridge reservation system interconnected with the SCP and the MCU, and suitable facilities interconnecting these components. When a conference reservation is made, information regarding the conference is distributed to the SCP and MCU. A "Called Party Busy" trigger is applied to the conference host's line. To join the conference, the host and participants alike simply call the host's telephone number. The switching system, finding the host's line busy, queries the SCP, which instructs it to redirect the call to the MCU. The MCU associates the call with a reserved conference by matching the called number with a host's telephone number in reservation records. This advantageously avoids the need for hosts to distribute, and participants to receive a special conference bridge telephone number or access code.

A network device for interconnecting computer networks, the device including a bridge having a plurality of ports through which network communications pass to and from the bridge, the bridge also including a first interface enabling a user to partition the plurality of bridge ports into a plurality of groups, wherein each group represents a different virtual network, wherein the bridge treats all ports within a given group as part of the virtual network corresponding to that group and the bridge isolates the virtual networks from each other, whereby any communications received at a first port of the bridge are directly sent by the bridge to another bridge port only if the other bridge port and the first bridge port are part of the same group.