Introduction

Communication tools are the different mechanisms used to communicate with others across different media. By media, we mean telephone lines, local area networks, satellite links, and so on. Think about it what do you do during a typical day at the office?

My office is a bit of a mish-mash in terms of technology. You would think that I have everything completely computerized, which is almost, but not quite, true. The main reason is that my office is also used by my wife occasionally and she wants to be able to use a variety of communication tools. I have a few servers, a printer, a scanner, and so on, but I also have a manual fax machine, which is probably true for many people. For my daily routine, I get up in the morning, check my e-mails, and browse the Internet for the latest news. When normal office hours commence, I start receiving and making phone calls and faxes via my fax machine and also video conference with my partner when we want a face-to-face chat.

Windows XP provides the majority of mechanisms that allow you to use it as a true communications tool across many different mediums. You can now share your desktop and then log on to it from your home computer, gaining access to it as though you were still sitting in front of it at the office, albeit with a slower response time. NetMeeting provides videoconferencing (providing you have a video camera attached, of course),...