As well as the three most important features in a modem - speed, speed and speed - manufacturers have piled on more and more facilities over the years. The ability to send and receive faxes was an early addition to the basic job of allowing computers to communicate over telephone lines. Voice-handling followed, eventually allowing a modem-PC combination to provide quite sophisticated voicemail services.
The second half of that combination, the PC, was generally the problem. To provide proper fax coverage the machine had to be left on around the clock, making noise and burning electricity.
3Com has come up with a very neat solution for the sort of small or home office where running a PC 24 hours a day to capture faxes is likely to be least acceptable. The Message Modem contains enough memory to hold 25 fax pages or 35 short voice messages. It does this unattended by a PC. When the computer is turned back on the messages are uploaded to it to be dealt with. Voice messages can also be checked remotely by phone, as with a traditional answering machine.
The operation of the SuperVoice software supplied to handle fax and voice messages can be clunky at times, but overall the system works well. Leaving the modem in standalone mode even while the PC is running also means that the user is not interrupted by incoming faxes as the PC freezes in preparation for capturing the fax.
On data calls - the basic purpose of any modem - it performed well, with connection speeds usually in the range 44K to 53K bits per second. Line conditions often prevent modems reaching their upper limit of 56K and this one performed creditably.
All in all, for versatility and value, the Message Modem is hard to fault.