BYTE SHORT TAKE: Fax96
 
Simple and Low-Cost Faxing At Its Best
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Once upon a time fax machines cost thousands of dollars and
required their own corner of the office. Now, with the
remarkable Fax96 from Fremont Communications, you can add fax
capability to your PC for less than $200. At that price, you
can afford to have a fax machine *and* a fax board -- and take
advantage of the strengths of both.
 
The Fax96 is a half-length plug-in card that will send and
receive Group III faxes at 9600 bits per second. With the
easy-to-use software that accompanies the Fax96, you can send
ASCII, TIFF, or PCX files directly from your hard disk to almost
any fax machine in the world and receive faxes even when you're
in the middle of an application.
 
The low price and small size of the Fax96 are due to a new
single-chip fax controller from Yamaha that replaces the
Rockwell chip set used by most PC fax boards today. The
DOS-based Fax96 software carries forward the simplicity of the
hardware with a push-button graphical interface that resembles
the front panel of a fax machine.
 
Installing the Fax96 was very easy. The manual provided
complete, illustrated instructions for setting jumpers to chose
the COM port and IRQ level and for installing the fax software.
To send a file, you enter fields on a "cover page" pop-up
window -- the name, company, and fax number of the recipient
(your name is filled in automatically from the configuration
file), the file to be sent, and up to four lines of comments
-- and then you type "G" for Go.
 
Faxes are received in the background, which means you don't
have to have the Fax96 software loaded. If you're running
another application, a little window pops up on the screen and
program execution halts until the fax is received. I tested
reception while running a variety of applications, such as
1-2-3 and Windows, and found no interference.
 
Received faxes are stored on disk and can be called up from a
menu for screen display and output to a variety of printers,
including HP LaserJets. The Fax96 software maintains a nice log
of sent and received files, which you can also print out for
record keeping. Before sending files, the Fax96 software has to
convert them to fax format, which takes about 40 seconds per
page. Transmission takes between 20 and 50 seconds per page,
depending on their complexity.
 
For simple faxing requirements, the low-cost Fax96 can't be
beat. The hardware works well and I was able to send and
receive documents from a variety of dedicated fax machines. My
only complaint was with the software, which is slow and lackingin
flexibility.
 
Fax96 software doesn't include a phone log (nor will it access
other logs such as Sidekick), so each transmission requires you
to re-enter the whole cover page. My beta version had trouble
sending .PCX files. File handling is clumsy and slightly
illogical. And it doesn't include advanced features like fax
broadcasting or time-delayed transmission. On the other hand,
these are drawbacks I can live with for $195.
 
 
The Facts
Fax96, $195
 
Requirements:
IBM PC, AT, or AT-bus 386 with 384 K RAM
Hard disk with 1.5 megabytes free space
DOS 2.1 or higher
Graphics display (CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules)
Graphics printer (optional)
 
Fremont Communications Company
46309 Warm Springs Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94539
(415) 438-5000
 
 
                              -- Andy Reinhardt
 
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