Abstract: An apparatus for transmitting and receiving spoken utterances over a local area network (LAN) in near-real-time. The type of LANs include both wireless LANs (e.g., radio frequency LANs) and wired LANs (e.g., a Novell network). A User depresses computer mouse buttons to initiate or terminate speaking into a computer which contains a sound card, microphone and speakers. The computer mouse buttons generate messages which are monitored by a hibernating process. Upon receiving the appropriate messages, the hibernating process awakens to transmit to one or more selected users. With only a slight time delay, one or more selected remote users receive the recorded message. Two buffers provide an efficient transfer mechanism of the recorded message between the transmitting and the receiving computers. Also, encryption techniques provide security measures for the transmitted recorded measures and compression techniques assist in the transfer of the recorded message.