🚀 go-pugleaf

A couple of days ago I bought a SportSter Vi modem (internal) to use as a
modem to access the Internet as well as run a Voice Mail/FAX service on my
PC.

Though not advertised as being compatible with Windows NT it functions
quite well in Data/Fax/Voice modes. It installed without a problem, and the
only thing that doesn't work under WinNT is printing to the FAX/modem from
an other application. However you can send a QuickFAX (one page with memo)
or convert a .bmp, .tif, .pcx, .dcx and even .txt files to a fax file
making it usable under Windows NT for occasional FAX users.

Though the modem functions quite well as a Data modem with RAS, I am having
a couple of problems with the Quicklink II software that came with the
modem.

- If I record a greeting message, or other people leave a message the sound
is very soft. About 30% of the volume of the pre-recorded messages. I
cannot find a recording volume setting anywhere to fix this problem.

- The CPU load is constantly 83% if the Call Manager applet is loaded. It
appears that the application is looping waiting for a "RING" signal. The
program needs to be changed to an event driven procedure.

- The print driver supplied with the program does not work properly, I
cannot prepare a FAX and print the message to the installed printer driver.
(Which disappeared as an option after the first boot.)

- Instead I am currently saving the Word documents as "text" files, and use
the built-in convert text to QFX utility. This utility does not have a
proper line wrap feature, and breaks words at a fixed position looking very
unprofessional forcing me to manually break lines at the right spot. The
best solution is to prepare a document in Word with a 12-points Courrier
font. Then use the Save as: "Text with line breaks" option and convert that
file to a QFX file.

- The modem does not have a silent answer feature (have the modem listen in
on the conversation and automatically answer if it is a FAX call) but it
does automatically detect FAX calls when in Voice mail mode.

- The Call Manager has buttons for play messages, mailbox and the phone
dialer. A critical one that is missing is a FAX receive button. Instead
when I answer the phone manually (and hear the calling tone of a FAX) I
need to select control-box|manual FAX receive or put the focus on the Call
Manager window and send a Ctrl-F keystroke. A simple "FAX" button would
make that easier/faster.

- When calls are answered by voice mail and I monitor the call on the
speaker there does not seem to be a way to pick up the phone and answer the
call myself. The handset is disabled at that time.

- Most voice recorded messages end with a 4 second silence. The program
should automatically strip that or better detect that the phone was thrown
on the hook and stop recording immediately if that happens.

- If I am playing back a message, and hit the "cancel" button. It doesn't
stop playing, but at the end flashes in red an error message that
disappears to quickly to read.

- There is a phone number dialer, but no speakerphone feature, even though
other modem manufactureres offer that feature in similar models.

- The modem requires an AT&F1 init string to reset to factory preset
conditions. The industry standard for this is to use AT&F but the SportSter
appears to ignore that command......

- Sometimes when I start Call Manager, I get the error message "Disk space
low, you only have -1095769764 bytes left on drive U. You may run out of
diskspace while receiving a FAX" Funny thing is I don't have a drive
U.......

Summarizing

I think it is a good modem that works better than most first generation
voice/FAX modems but it has a number of rough spots that need to be
addressed. The modem manufacturers and software providers probably get it
right in the third generation...... The recording volume problems make the
modem look like a cheap toy, not a quality product from a company like USR.
Quicklink II installed properly under Windows NT and appears to work fine,
except for a number of small problems that can be easily corrected.

Jean.