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HOME OFFICE SELECTION
INTRO
Staying in touch with the outside world is
even more important when you’re working
from home. Rick Maybury looks at some of the latest phones, fax and answering
machines, many of them designed specifically for home office users
COPY
Working from home will change your life.
Usually it’s for the better, but it can just as easily turn into a nightmare.
The biggest problem for many first-timers is communications, or more often than
not, a lack of them. The majority of home office users spend a lot of their
time working alone, in which case there’s no-one else to answer the phone, take
messages, or make excuses... If your business is going to thrive it’s vitally
important to make sure that callers and clients -- existing and potential --
can get hold of you whenever possible, and are never left feeling frustrated or
ignored. However, the simple fact is you can only be in one place at a time;
inevitably there will be occasions when you are unavailable, busy or unable to
take calls.
That needn’t be a problem. In the past few
years there’s been a minor revolution in the office equipment market, with an
increasing number of phone products now specifically designed for the SoHo
(small office, home office) applications.
Well chosen telephone systems can give your
business a professional ‘big-company’ image, and give callers the impression
that you’re accessible, even if you can’t actually speak with them in person at
precisely that moment. It’s not necessary to spend a small fortune on office
equipment though, and many small businesses run from home offices function
perfectly well with just a single residential telephone line.
At first sight the huge range of
telecommunications equipment can look intimidating. To help you sort the wheat
from the chaff -- and there’s no shortage of that -- we’ve been taking a close
look at what’s available, by focusing on three key areas: cordless phones,
answering machines and fax machines.
Cordless phones are a quick and easy way of
putting an extension phone into a room or outbuilding -- handy when you’re just
starting out -- and they’re very popular with those lucky enough to be able to
take their work into the back garden, on sunny days. Answering machines are the
home-office worker’s best friend; the right message will ensure you never miss
a call. Fax machines have become an indispensable tool for all types of
business. Quite simply you cannot exist without one, if you expect to send or
receive documents, and you can’t afford to trust your livelihood to the
vagaries of postal and courier services, at home and abroad.
CORDLESS PHONES
In the past cordless telephones have played
only a peripheral role in the home office equipment market but now there’s a
whole new generation of products, designed specifically for SoHo users. Early
cordless phones had a reputation for poor quality, unreliability, and because
they all operated on a small handful of frequencies, they were not very
secure. When they first appeared, back
in the early 1980’s, it was possible to
walk up and down a street, accessing other people’s base-stations in shops and
houses; interference from other users was a constant problem. Modern analogue
phones are now reasonably secure, they use coded signals to reduce the chances
of interaction. They operate on a much larger set of frequencies, interference
is not a big problem, and the quality has improved dramatically. Features worth
looking out for include two-way intercoms, Mercury dialling, auto channel
selection (to ensure the best line quality), speakerphone, out of range warning and the option for
additional handsets. Some cordless phones have an integrated telephone
answering machine, which can be useful, if space is at a premium.
Whilst analogue technology still has a lot to
offer, the future is digital. The next generation of cordless phones, now
reaching the market, use digitally processed signals. This gives a much better
range and sound quality, a high level of security, and many new features, that
will be of special interest to SoHo workers. The relevant technology is called
DECT or Digital European Cordless Telecommunications; it operates on much higher frequency band than analogue
systems (1.8 to 1.9 gigahertz), close to the frequencies used by some cellular
phone networks.
The principle benefit is flexibility. Some
DECT systems have the facility to be used with up to six handsets, which can
communicate directly with the base-station, and the outside line, or between
themselves, thus becoming a complete self-contained internal telephone system.
The DECT system also has the potential to be used for data transmissions,
cordless modems are already in the pipeline. There’s also the possibility for
local ‘telepoints’ which would enable DECT handsets to be used to make outgoing
calls at public base-stations, at airports, railway stations or local
high-streets and so on. However, readers with long memories may remember what
happened to the ill-fated Rabbit system, and others, from the late 1980s and
early 1990s, so don’t hold your breath...
BETACOM DISCOVERY 8, £69.99
This is a fairly basic, general-purpose
design, suitable for light duties in a home office. The smooth, clean styling
makes it easy to use and hold. Control layout is good and the buttons are well
spaced. Speech quality is fair to middling, it can become quite hissy and
sensitive to position at the limits of the range (around 30 metres), otherwise
it works well and the price is fair.
Make/model Betacom Discovery 8
Typical price £69.99
System analogue cordless phone
Channels 8-channel, auto selection
Features 10-number memory, out of range
warning, page facility, redial, PABX facility
Battery life 14 hours (standby)
RATINGS
Performance ****
Range ***
Ease of use ****
Value ****
VERDICT 79%
BT DIVERSE 1000, £229.99
The Diverse is the first of the DECT digital
cordless phones to reach the UK market, several others are due to follow later
this year. Speech quality is excellent, even at the limit of its range, which
is several times the distance of most analogue phones (around 300 metres). Up
to six extra handsets can be used, with the facility to call between handsets,
whilst another is connected to an outside line. It is expensive but it is very
well suited to SoHo applications. Recommended.
Make/model BT DIVERSE 1000
Typical price £229.99
System digital cordless phone/exchange
Channels 120, auto selection
Features handset display, out of range
warning, upgradable with extra handsets, pager, digital security code, call
timer, call transfer, 10 memories, PABX compatible
Battery life 30 hours (standby)
RATINGS
Performance *****
Range *****
Ease of use ****
Value ****
VERDICT 85%
BT FREESTYLE 320, £99.99
This is one of the most advanced analogue
phones on the market, geared towards small business use. It has the option to
add extra handsets (£39.99 each), and a two-way intercom facility, which
operates independently of the outside line. Speech quality is generally quite
good, and it doesn’t deteriorate as quickly as some other models due to the
extended range of around 100 metres.
Worth considering.
Make/model BT Freestyle 320
Typical price £99.99
System analogue cordless phone
Channels 8-channels, auto selection
Features 10 number memory, LCD display,
pager, out of range warning, intercom, on-hook dialling, multi-handset
capability, PABX compatibility, Mercury dialling
Battery life 100 hours (standby)
RATINGS
Performance ****
Range ***
Ease of use ****
Value ***
VERDICT 82%
PANASONIC KT-T4066E, £99.99
Efficient noise reduction circuitry makes
this one of the quietest analogue phones on the market. It’s bristling with
useful SoHo features, like the reversible handset and the speaker built into
the base-unit, making it an easy to use speakerphone. There’s a 2-way paging
and intercom facility and a 10 number memory. The styling and black/charcoal
livery gives it a professional appearance and the long battery life means it’s
unlikely to let you down at the crucial moment. Recommended.
Make/model Panasonic KT-4066
Typical price £99.99
System analogue cordless speaker-phone
Channels 6 channels, auto selection
Features 10-number memory, reversible
handset, hands-free speaker phone, 2-way pager/intercom, Mercury
compatible
Battery life 160 hours (standby)
RATINGS
Performance *****
Range ****
Ease of use ****
Value ****
VERDICT 83%
SANYO CLT-583, £99.99
Sanyo have clearly put a lot of thought into
this design and carefully targeted the features at small office applications.
The 583 has a dual personality, operating like a well featured desk-phone, that
effortlessly transforms in to a stylish cordless phone. It looks very
businesslike, range and speech quality are both very good. Worth considering.
Make/model Sanyo CLT-583
Typical price £99.99
System analogue cordless speaker phone
Channels 8-channels, auto selection
Features 10-number memory, dual keypads,
illuminated keypad on handset, speaker phone, 2-way page and intercom, Mercury
compatible, PABX compatible, noise reduction
Range 50 metres
RATINGS
Performance ****
Range ****
Ease of use ****
Value ****
VERDICT 82%
BOX COPY 1
BUYING A CORDLESS PHONE
* take manufacturer’s maximum ‘open air’
range figures with a pinch of salt, unless your desk happens to be in the
middle of a field...
* check the battery life figures, especially
if you’re forgetful or liable to leave the handset lying around overnight
* re-chargeable batteries may only last for a
year or two; check that they can be easily replaced, and spares are readily
available
* multi-channel analogue cordless phones can
still interfere with one another. If you live or work in a densely populated
area, you should consider a digital phone
* cordless phones are not a long-term
substitute for a wired extension, nor can analogue models be used with other
types of telephone equipment, such as faxes, answering machines or computer
modems
BOX COPY 2
PHONE FACTS -- POWER PROBLEMS
If there’s a power cut an ordinary phone will
continue to operate, because it draws its power from the telephone line, but
what happens to a cordless phone? Since all of the models on the market are
mains powered they would stop working, but BT regulations say that’s not
allowed as the phone couldn’t be used to make an emergency call. If your one
and only phone is a cordless model then it must have some form of battery
back-up. Most models now have a built-in battery compartment, or a separate
battery box, that will keep the phone’s base unit ticking over for several
hours, until power has been restored. The sensible option is to always have a
conventional ‘wired’ phone connected to your line, just in case...
ANSWERING MACHINES
It wasn’t so long ago that a telephone
answering machine was one of the most advanced and expensive pieces of
electronic equipment in an average office. Now they’re commodity items,
domestic appliances that can be purchased cheaply in any high street.
Nevertheless, that hasn’t altered their status as one of the most valuable
business tools, essential for home office workers who cannot be next to the
phone all the time.
The cost of telephone answering machines
(TAMs) has plummeted in the past ten years, initially due to the development of
single-drive, microprocessor controlled
micro-cassette tape machines -- where both the outgoing message (OGM)
and incoming messages (ICM) are recorded on the same tape cassette. More
recently there’s been an influx of digital recording systems. More than half of
all new TAMs now use tapeless technology. It has a number of advantages. The
quality of the OGM doesn’t deteriorate, as there’s nothing to wear out; they
have fewer moving parts -- hardly any in fact -- so they’re more reliable, and
that also makes them cheaper to manufacture. There are some trade-offs, though.
Sound quality can sometimes be a little strange, some systems give the caller’s
voice a sort of vibrato quality, recordings times are normally a less than tape
-- some models have just a few minutes capacity -- and it’s difficult to
archive recordings, or record long conversations. On the plus side, digital
machines can easily time and date stamp recordings, and you don’t have to wait
to spool though messages, to hear widely-spaced parts of a recording.
There are several dozen TAMs on the market,
including basic stand-alone devices, and combined answering machines with
telephones (tel-tams), which are arguably the most appropriate for home office
use. SoHo-oriented features to look out for include: remote interrogation,
enabling you to retrieve messages, when you’re away from home; call-screening, so
you can decide whether or not to answer the phone; multiple number memories,
one-touch dialling and hands-free dialling.
BETACOM SOLO, £24.99
The Solo is one of the cheapest telephone
answering machines on the market, but if all you need are basic functions, for
callers to leave a message, or let them know where you can be reached, then
it’s not to be sniffed at. It uses a single micro-cassette tape for both the
ICM and OGM, and it whirrs and clunks rather a lot, as it winds back and forth
through the tape. It is a little slow but for the price it has some handy
facilities, audio quality is quite good, and it’s hard to fault, as far as
simplicity of use is concerned.
Make/model Betacom Solo
Typical price £24.99
System micro-cassette TAM
Features day/time stamp, call screen, remote
interrogation, flashing LED call counter
RATINGS
ICM Quality ****
OGM Quality ***
Ease of use ****
Value *****
VERDICT 83%
BT RESPONSE 310, £49.99
BT’s Response range of tel-tams continues to
evolve, with improved facilities, performance and lower prices. The Response
310 is their current mid-ranger, it has a digital recording system with fast
message access, skip and repeat. Other features include a 13-number memory,
call screening, time/date stamp and message counter display. Like all BT
products the pedigree is impeccable, audio quality is average to good -- for a
digital tel-tam -- and it’s reasonably priced.
Make/model BT Response 310
Typical price £99.99
System digital tel-tam
Features time/date stamp, 13 number memory,
remote interrogation, call screening, message count
RATINGS
ICM Quality ***
OGM Quality ****
Ease of use ***
Value ****
VERDICT 78%
PANASONIC KX-T2886, £199.95
Panasonic’s impeccable SoHo credentials are
clear to see on this highly sophisticated tel-tam. The digital recording system
has a 30 minute recording capacity, and several useful extras, including two
voice mailboxes. Selected callers can access a mailbox, using a simple code,
and leave a personal message, that can only be retrieved with a personal PIN
code. Digital audio has a slightly ‘gritty’ quality, but it’s perfectly
intelligible. A tad pricey maybe but this is no tarted up domestic product, it’s
built to last, do the job, and do it well! Recommended.
Make/model Panasonic KX-T2886
Typical price £199.95
System digital tel-tam
Features 8 number memory, hands-free speaker
phone, twin voice mailbox Mercury
compatible, alarm clock, 2-way record, time/date stamp, remote operation, call
screening, memo record, call transfer, message counter
RATINGS
ICM Quality ****
OGM Quality ***
Ease of use ***
Value ****
VERDICT 83%
OLYCOM A500, £39.99
This rather ordinary-looking micro-cassette
TAM from Olympus has one very special talent. That’s the facility to dial 1471
and record the info from BT’s number check facility, if a caller doesn’t leave
a message. That could be very helpful as a lot of people are still intimidated
by answering machines. That’s in addition to a voice time/date stamp, call counter
display, remote interrogation and memo recording. Audio quality is good and the
machine is exceptionally easy to use. Worth considering.
Make/model Olycom A500
Typical price £39.99
System micro-cassette TAM
Features 1471 ring-back and record, message
counter, remote interrogation, memo record, time and date stamp
RATINGS
ICM Quality ***
OGM Quality ****
Ease of use ****
Value ****
VERDICT 80%
SHARP CL-A500, £200
We were unsure whether to include this as a
cordless phone, or as an answering machine; in the end we suspect it will be
brought primarily for its telephone answering facilities; cordless phone
operation is a bonus. It’s an excellent example of a product that’s designed
for a specific application, namely small or home offices. It uses a single
micro-cassette, so ICM and OGM quality is good, and recording times are only
restricted by tape length. The speaker phone is a major convenience feature and
there’s several neat touches, like the illuminated keypad and the handset,
which will stand upright on its base. A very attractive combination of
technologies, worth considering.
Make/model Sharp CL-A500
Typical price £200
System analogue cordless tel-tam
Features 12-number memory, one-touch
auto-dial, redial, dual speakerphone, on-hook dialling, intercom/pager, 2-way
conference mode, Mercury compatible, auto security coding, illuminated
keypad, micro-cassette telephone
answering machine, remote access (outside line or cordless handset), memo recording,
call screening, 8-channel, auto selection, 14-days standby, 45-metre range
RATINGS
ICM Quality *****
OGM Quality ***
Ease of use ****
Value ****
VERDICT 88%
BOX COPY 3
BUYING AND USING ANSWERING MACHINES
* A time and date stamp is not a luxury, it’s
essential especially if you’re likely to be away from your desk for more than a
few hours
* keep your outgoing message short and to the
point. Long-winded and un-funny OGMs are very annoying, and sound
unprofessional
* A call counter is very handy if you expect
your machine to take a lot of messages
* the
tape heads on well-used micro-cassette TAMs need cleaning every few weeks with
a cotton swab, soaked in cleaning fluid
*
tapes should be changed every few months, to avoid a reduction in audio quality
following repeated use
BOX COPY 4
PHONE FACTS -- TAPE Vs DIGITAL
For once digital doesn’t necessarily mean
better. Tape-based TAMs have a number of advantages, some of which are directly
relevant to SoHo applications. To begin with the sound quality of incoming and
outgoing messages is often better -- especially on budget and mid-range
equipment. As the information is stored on tape, it cannot be easily lost or
corrupted, if there’s a power cut, or the backup battery fails. Tape-based
machines often have a longer, unrestricted recording capacity. Micro-cassettes, which last for up to 30 minutes per
side, can be easily changed, (or turned over), so messages do not have to be
periodically erased to free up space.
Digital recording systems have a finite capacity, sometimes limited to just
a few minutes, which generally makes them unsuitable for recording long two-way
conversations. Tapes are cheap and easy to archive, should you want to keep a
permanent record of your calls, or conversations. In general digital TAMs do
not have any facilities for archiving recordings, other than by holding a
microphone, connected to a tape recorder, next to the answering machine’s
loudspeaker.
FAX/PHONE & TAM COMBIS
Fax machines were once an expensive luxury,
as recently as ten years ago they were mainly found in large, well-equipped
offices, with the space to accommodate bulky devices the size of a small filing
cabinet. A succession of postal strikes in the 1980’s changed all that and
within a few years the fax machine population in the UK soared. This created
the necessary critical mass, that both helped bring prices down even further,
and make them a near universal means of communication.
The core technologies, used to send text and
graphical images down ordinary telephone lines, have changed little in fifty
years, though transmission speeds, image quality and ease of use have been
transformed, and continue to improve all the time. Needless to say fax machines
have also been getting smaller, cheaper and easier to use. They’ve also become
a lot more flexible; most models now have an integrated telephone -- often with
plenty of extra convenience features. A growing number of SoHo oriented
products have integrated answering machines, or the facility to connect to an
external TAM. Most of these machines can discriminate between different types
of incoming calls, either automatically, or by giving the caller the option to
choose between a normal telephone call, or send a fax, thus making the most
efficient use of a single line.
One of the most commonly cited bugbears of
faxes is the thin, curly thermal paper, and the fact that images can fade quite
quickly, especially if they’re stored incorrectly. Some machines can help to
iron out the curl, though the increasingly affordable alternative are
plain-paper fax machines. These use a variety of printing technologies,
including laser, inkjet and thermal ink-roll. Virtually all fax machines have a
copy facility, though reproduction is usually not a patch on a proper
photocopier. Some plain-paper fax machines can be connected to a PC, enabling
them to be used as a printer and in some cases, a scanner as well, though this
one-box solution is still at an early stage of development. Most of the
products launched so far, do not perform as well as the separate items they’re
meant to replace.
Fax machines are possibly one of the most
difficult pieces of office equipment to buy, considering the wide variations in
price and feature combinations. However, it is generally fair to say that the
quality of received images is relatively consistent, so if you expect to
receive a lot more faxes than you send, you can settle for a cheaper or simpler
machine. On the other hand if you’re going to be sending a lot of faxes then
it’s worth paying for the additional features. Advanced error correction
systems are useful if you suffer from a noisy phone line. Combination fax
answering machines are a great idea, but do take into account how easy they are
to for callers to use. If they have to listen to lengthy instruction messages
they may be put off.
BETACOM PPF-800, £449.99
A remarkably low price for a plain-paper
combination fax, answering machine, printer and scanner. Part of the reason
they’ve been able to keep the cost down is the unusual thermal-ink printing
system. It’s based around a single-use cartridge containing a roll of inked
film. Print, copy and fax image quality is okay for text -- the texture is very
similar to thermal printing -- but halftone and detailed graphic images are not
especially sharp. Ink cartridges cost around £14 each, they are long enough for
around 400 A4-sized faxes or printouts.
It’s reasonably compact, just a little larger than the other personal desktop
fax/phones we’ve looked at, plus it is easy to set-up and use. It has some
useful answer phone facilities, such as call forwarding. This is very handy if
you’ve got a mobile phone, or know a number where you can be reached. When a
message has been received the PPF-800 will dial a nominated number, and relay
the message; all you have to do is key in a PIN number on the phone, to hear
the recording. Resolution on the scanner is quite coarse, it’s adequate for
simple documents, but images can look quite dark. It suffers from the usual
problems of a Jack-of-all-trades; faxing and answering machine facilities are
fine, scanning and printing options are best suited to light, undemanding
applications. Good value, though.
Make/model Betacom PPF-800
Typical price £449.99
Features Digital answering machine, memo
record ‘secure’ voice mail facility, call forwarding, plain paper operation, 10
sheet capacity, 50-number autodialler, Mercury compatible, remote access, PC
interface (printing & scanning)
RATINGS
Send quality ****
Receive quality ***
Ease of use ***
Value ***
VERDICT 82%
PANASONIC KX-F2700, £338.00
Panasonic are one of the pioneers of
combination fax-answering machines and the F2700 is one of their current top
sellers. It’s ideal for small business users, designed to handle a reasonably
busy workload. Key features include a paper cutter and stacker, anti-curl
facility, 64 level greyscale resolution and a 15 sheet auto feeder. The digital
answering machine has automatic switching for incoming faxes and it has a
30-number auto-dialler. There are three password protected voice mail boxes,
for nominated callers to leave messages, in addition to the general answering
facility. The speaker phone has hands-free operation and it’s Mercury
compatible. Two finishes are available, white or grey, to suit most types of
decor. Fax send and receive quality is
very good, with better than average resolution on graphics and halftones. Worth
considering.
Make/model Panasonic KX-F2700
Typical price £338.00
Features combined fax digital TAM, 15-sheet
document feeder, 30-number memory, hands-free speakerphone, paper cutter, curl
reduction, 3 password protected mailboxes
RATINGS
Send quality ****
Receive quality ****
Ease of use ****
Value ****
VERDICT 83%
SAMSUNG SF-2900, £329.99
The digital answering machine on this model
has a large 60 minute capacity and a 2 megabyte memory, that can store up to 50
fax pages, for transmission or reception. The latter feature means that
incoming faxes won’t be lost, if the machine runs out of paper. Finished in
ivory, it has a relatively small footprint, the control layout is logical and
simple to use. Transmission quality in the Super-fine mode is good, it has a
32-level greyscale, but it’s not especially fast. Received documents are crisp,
halftones are light and detailed. Audio quality on the digital answering
machine is amongst the best in this roundup with very little distortion. The
large memory capacity -- it’s probably no coincidence that Samsung are one of
the world’s leading manufacturers of memory chips -- gives this machine a clear
advantage over most other models in this category. That, together with impressive fax and TAM performance means it
is definitely worth shortlisting.
Make/model Samsung SF-2900
Typical price £329.99
Features digital answering machine, two
megabyte memory, paper cutter, fax/TAM switch, 10 one-touch and 80 number
memories, 10-sheet sheet feeder, remote interrogation, hands-free 2-way speaker
phone, Mercury compatible, call transfer, call screening
RATINGS
Send quality *****
Receive quality *****
Ease of use *****
Value *****
VERDICT 85%
SANYO SFX-210, £299.99
This versatile and attractively-priced
combination fax with telephone answering machine uses thermal paper and a
digital recording system. The fax feature list is quite extensive considering
the price, and includes a paper cutter, 10-page document feeder, 3 resolution
modes and timer transmission. There’s a 20-number speed-dial memory and 8
one-touch numbers. A built-in speakerphone enables hands-free operation. Layout
and design are both fairly conventional, frequently used controls are grouped
together, and colour coded for easy identification. The LCD display is not very
easy to read from a lowish seating position, when the machine is on a desktop
for example, and loading a roll of fax paper can be quite tricky, until you get
used to it. Performance is very good, audio on the digital answering machine is
unusually crisp. Fax images are very clean and the fine transmission mode is a
little better than average.
Make/model Sanyo SFX-210
Typical price £299.99
Features Digital answering machine, on-hook
dialling, auto paper cutter, 10-page document feeder, 20-speed-dial/8 one-touch
number memories, Mercury compatible, remote interrogation
RATINGS
Send quality ****
Receive quality ****
Ease of use ****
Value ****
VERDICT 82%
SHARP UX-85, £379.99
Sharp are another company with a great deal
of expertise in the SoHo market, and it shows, the UX85 us a well-featured and
simple to use desktop fax machine, with a built-in digital answering machine.
Plus points include a ‘flash’ memory, that retains messages and settings, even
if the power is interrupted, and message forwarding, that dials up a nominated
phone, to let the user know that a message has been left. The digital TAM has an 11-minute recording
capacity, which isn’t very long, but it does have an unusual fast playback
facility, for quickly searching through recordings, and a slow playback mode,
for increased clarity. The fax system has 16-levels of greyscale, so finely
detailed images can look a little muddy but transmission speeds are a little faster
than average. The control layout is uncluttered; it’s quite a chunky design, a bit of a dust-trap we suspect but it looks quite purposeful.
Worth considering if you’re looking for a simple, no-fuss fax-tam with a
useful, rather than exotic range of facilities.
Make/model Sharp UX-85
Typical price £379.99
Features digital answering machine with
dual-speed playback, time and date stamp, auto page cutter, non-volatile
‘flash’ memory, remote interrogation, message forwarding, 15-sheet document
feeder, Mercury compatible, speakerphone 5-number speed dial, 10-number memory
RATINGS
Send quality ****
Receive quality ***
Ease of use ****
Value ***
VERDICT 80%
BOX COPY 5
BUYING A FAX MACHINE
* don’t skimp on facilities like a sheet
feeder and paper cutter, if you expect to send and receive a lot of long
documents
* check the cost and availability of fax
rolls before you buy; compact machines tend to cost more to run, and need
replenishing more often
* if you expect to send a lot of graphic
images or halftones make sure the machine has a good range of resolution modes
* if you need a photocopier get one. Fax
machine copying facilities are generally quite poor
* check how easy it will be for callers to
leave a message, or send a fax on combi models -- complicated procedures or
long delays are bound to put people off...
BOX COPY 6
PHONE FAX -- THERMAL Vs PLAIN PAPER
Thermal paper fax machines are cheap,
generally reliable, and image quality is not too bad. Unfortunately most types
of thermal paper are thin, curly, and has a ‘gritty’ feel, though some
high-grade (read expensive) papers are not too bad these days. However, thermal
faxes fade over time, and can disappear in a matter of weeks, if they’re stored
in direct sunlight, or close to a source of heat. There’s now a good selection
of plain paper fax machines on the market, that print on ordinary copier paper.
Several different printing technologies are used, and they all have their own
plus and minus points. Some plain paper machines can also be connected to a PC,
enabling them to be used as printers; on some models the fax scanner can be
used to import documents and images -- in black and white -- into a PC. This
may require the use of additional software, and resolution is normally not as
good as a dedicated scanner.
Laser or LED printing is currently the most
expensive system, and the cost of consumables -- replaceable toner cartridges
-- varies considerably, but it’s capable of the best results. Inkjet printers
are usually more compact and image quality can be quite good but ink cartridges
may need replacing fairly often and can also be quite costly. The latest idea
is thermal ink film ribbons. A roll of thin plastic film, held inside a
cartridge, is coated with a thermally reactive ink. Inside the machine it comes
into contact with a sheet of paper, a thermal printing head -- similar to the
one used in a conventional fax machine -- transfers the ink to the paper. The
ink film can only be used once, so it can be quite wasteful on documents that
have only a few lines of text, moreover it cannot produce the same fine
graduations of grey, that are possible using other printing techniques.
Replacement ink rolls are relatively inexpensive, though they are not, at
present, as widely available as thermal paper, inkjet or toner cartridges.
BOX COPY 7
PHONE FACTS -- REN NUMBERS
All BT compliant telephone devices must have
a REN or ringer equivalence number printed somewhere on the case, or in the
instruction book. This is important as it tells you how many pieces of
equipment can be connected to a single line, to ensure reliable operation. The
REN numbers of all the appliances using the line are added together and should
not exceed 4. Ordinary phones and those supplied by BT typically have a REN of
1 or less. Cordless phones and answering machines usually have a REN or 1 or 2;
fax machines and combination fax-TAMs can have a REN of 2 or sometimes 3.
BOX COPY
JARGON BUSTER
ACTIVITY LOG/JOURNAL
Printout or display on a fax machine that
shows the time, date and status of fax messages transmitted and received by
that machine
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