Caller on Line Two

Home Office Computing,  Oct, 1999  by Keith Kirkpatrick

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GOT A SECOND PHONE line to handle Web surfing and e-mail? We bet it's pulling double duty as a voice and fax line as well. Even in home offices lucky enough to have a pair of phone lines, the second can soon become taxed to the limit.

Meet the ActionTec 56K Internal PCI Modem, which works with your phone company's call waiting service to let you work online and still receive incoming calls. When a call rings through, you have three choices: ignore it and continue browsing; answer and speak for a few seconds and then quickly return to your Internet session; or take the call and drop your online connection.

The toughest part of installing the modem in our 400MHz Gateway Pentium III desktop was first removing the existing modem and uninstalling it in the Control Panel. We then slipped the ActionTec modem into a free PCI slot and rebooted the PC, whereupon Windows' Add New Hardware wizard prompted us to insert the supplied CD-ROM to install the card's drivers. (Those who dislike any under-the-hood installation can spend an extra $20 for an external model.)

Connected to the Web, we then dialed the modem line's number using a cell phone. When we decided to let the call go unanswered, the modem rang five times and then stopped, preserving our Internet connection. We tried again, this time answering the call, pretending to speak for five seconds, and then hanging up, and returned to surfing with no problems.

Our last test involved answering the call, then attempting a fax reception using our external fax machine. We first connected the fax machine to the modem, and disconnected our regular phone. We then answered the call using the fax machine's handset, and were able to initiate a manual fax reception. This test, too, went perfectly. Now we have no excuse to miss a phone call again.

ActionTec 56K Internal PCI Modem

8.1

V   8
P   9
E   7
S   8

Requirements   Win 3.1/95/98, PCI card slot, CD-ROM drive

List Price     $105

Manufacturer   ActionTec Electronics, 800-371-0442,
               www.actiontec.com

RATINGS

HOME OFFICE COMPUTING'S product scores are weighted averages of 1- to 10-point ratings for: Value (30 percent of total), Performance (30 percent of total), Ease of Use (20 percent of total), and Suitability for Home Office Use (20 percent of total).

KEY:
V = Value
P = Performance
E = Ease of Use
S = Suitability for
    Home Office Use

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