by Don Engstrom

HotFax MessageCenter Pro from Smith Micro is a software based voice mail system aimed at the small office. With HFMC you can create voice mailboxes for all employees in your office as well as "fax on demand" mailboxes that allow callers to request specific documents by fax.

Installation: Was pretty straightforward. HFMC comes bundled with FaxSTF Pro and there is a separate installer for each program. The HFMC folder takes up roughly 14MB of drive space but you will quickly double this once you set up your voice mail system due to the inherent bulk of the audio files created. FAXstf takes just under 5MB. After installing and rebooting you will be prompted by the FaxSTF software to enter the header information you want included on outgoing faxes.

Setup: Smith Micro doesn't include a printed manual, relying on PDF files for both HFMC and FaxSTF. Fortunately, the process of setting up the various types of mailboxes is fairly intuitive. When adding mailboxes you are prompted to specify the type of box you are adding:

• Mailbox Folders - A container for mailboxes. "ABC Co." pictured below is a mailbox folder. This is useful for organizing mailboxes by department.
• Standard Mailbox - Contains a primary and (optionally) secondary greeting. Callers can leave a message after the greeting.
• Info Only Mailbox - Contains only outgoing greeting(s). Callers can not leave messages. "Directions" below is an Info Only mailbox. Useful for providing information like hours of operation, contact lists etc.
• Fax On Demand - Will send a fax to the number entered by the caller. You have the option to allow or disallow international calls.

Each mailbox has an icon to identify its type as well as a number that corresponds to the number callers use to access it. Callers using rotary phones (and touch tone callers that don't make any selections) will automatically be routed to the system mailbox.

All mailboxes allow you to set up a primary and secondary greeting. You can specify when the primary greeting is used (8:00am - 5:00pm weekdays for example) and the secondary greeting will kick in at all other times. With the standard mailbox you also have the option of having HFMC notify you when you have a specified number of messages in your box. You can specify two contact numbers, voice or pager, as well as the acceptable hours for notification.

Performance: Setting up HFMC was straightforward and mostly painless. I was tripped up initially when I tried using a US Robotics 56k modem which doesn't include voice capabilities. Every incoming call was treated as a fax. We have included a list of currently supported modems at the end of this review. Switching to an older Global Village voice/fax modem did the trick. HFMC routed my test calls to the appropriate mailboxes with a slight but acceptable delay. The audio quality on the greetings I had recorded was decent. Primary and secondary messages played according to the custom schedules I had set up. The notification feature worked like a charm. HFMC called the number I specified once a message had been deposited in my mailbox and then played recorded instructions for retrieval. HFMC did have problems recognizing my password number when entered at a normal rate. Entering the number very slowly did the trick.

HFMC had no problems distinguishing between incoming voice and fax calls, handing the latter off to FAXstf for processing.

One area where HFMC falls short is the Fax On Demand feature. To receive a fax, callers must enter their fax number followed by their voice number. Each entry is followed by a painfully slow confirmation message as HFMC accesses the sound file for each individual number. "The number you have entered is.....four......zero.......eight......" You get the idea.... To make matters worse, there is no way to turn off the confirmation step or for callers to skip past it. Hopefully this will be improved in future versions. The good news is that the fax eventually goes out to the number you entered. I also experienced sporadic crashes and unexpected quits while trying to edit mailboxes or retrieve messages remotely.

Conclusions: HotFax MessageCenter Pro gives the small office a professional sounding voice mail system at a very reasonable price. While the fax on demand feature does eventually get the job done, many callers will no doubt be frustrated by the slow process. This issue and a few unexplained crashes aside, HFMC works quite well and packs a rich set of features that should fill the needs of the small business owner until funds are available for that $8,000 dedicated voice mail system!

Product: HotFax MessageCenter Pro 1.0 with FAXstf 5.0.4
Company: Smith Micro
Hits: Professional sounding voice mail system at a reasonable price, message notification to phone or pager, packaged with FAXstf.
Misses: Fax on demand process frustratingly slow, sporadic crashes, keystrokes not recognized unless entered slowly, no printed manual.
Rating: (5 possible)
Requirements: - PPC (G3 recommended) - MacOS 7.6.1 or newer - 4MB available RAM - 15MB hard drive space (plus space for voice mail files) - CD-ROM Drive
Supported Modems
Rockwell Voice 3Com 56K Apple Internal 56K Apple Global Village Best Data Smart One 56 USB SP Best Data Smart One 56 USB PX Best Data Smart One 56 USB SX Supra Express 56e USB Supra Express 33e SPA SVD (both Supra modems are also sold under DIAMOND MULTIMEDIA)	ZOOM ComStar XT SVD ZOOM ComStar XT SVD 56KX Dualmode ZOOM 56KX Dualmode Global Village TelPort USB 56 Global Village TelPort Internat 56 Global Village TelPort33.6 SpeakerPhone Global Village TelPort Platinum iMac 56K Internal PowerMac G3 Internal 56k