DOS answering machine ???

There was a dedicated ISA-bus card for the PC called "Watson" that did exactly that under DOS. It had a character-based user-interface. It allowed remote access to the voicemail boxes. It could also serve as a "demon dialer", intercepting touch tone signals to do speed dialing and other functions. The device had two RJ-11 jacks, one for the phone line coming into the house, and the other which fed all of the rest of the phones in the house. It could also, with optional software, be set up as a basic AVR system. It could also serve as a 1200-baud (IIRC) modem. I don't recall any FAX capabilities. I have one of these around somewhere, and even the "voicemail" software (on 5 1/4" DOS floppies), along with the documentation. I used it for quite some time on a clone "XT"-class machine utilizing a NEC-made 8088-compatible micrprocessor. It worked pretty well, though the biggest problem was that there was no indication at the phone that voicemail was waiting. You either had to check it, or go to the PC to see if there were messages. Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Web Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com