Abstract: A doorbell answering system includes is sensor to sense the presence of a visitor at an exterior panel. The system announces a message greeting to the visitor, asking the visitor to identify themselves. The visitor's response is recorded by the exterior panel and played at an interior panel, allowing a resident to monitor the visitor's response. The interior panel also records the visitor's response for subsequent playback in a controlled manner via a control panel. The system may store multiple visitor messages, each identified by a date and time. During monitoring, the resident may open the door, ignore the visitor, or initiate a warning alarm, via two buttons provided at the interior panel. The resident may depress the two buttons, thereby sending a signal to the exterior panel to announce the warning alarm. In an example, the warning alarm is loud enough to cover an area, such as a neighborhood block, to ward off the visitor.