Abstract: Disclosed are a method of and a system for receiving data on a portable device. The method comprises the steps of providing a portable device having a data modem with active and dormant stages, and a short message service (SMS) capability; receiving a pre-defined SMS message and in response thereto, switching said data modem from said dormant stage to said active stage; and thereafter, receiving data through said data modem. The preferred embodiment of the invention uses a cellular PDA type device that can receive phone calls and Short Message Service (SMS) type messages even when the data modem of the PDA is not engaged. In this preferred embodiment, a special SMS message is sent from a back-end server infrastructure of a computer network to the PDA device to tell that device to “wake up” and connect to the network.

Abstract: Disclosed is a communication server that uses a communication mediator to conduct voice/text communication sessions between users with different communications systems through a session initiation protocol (SIP) server. The communication server uses a voice recognition system to interface with participants in communications sessions and to provide a link between the participants and the mediator. The voice recognition system monitors ongoing voice communications for keywords and verbally prompts the participants to provide additional value to the communication session. The mediator can also access and retrieve information directly from a directory or from other data sources through an intelligent data server. Based on the directory information, additional participants can be added to the communication session.