Juggling seems to be a necessary skill for telecommuting. If you're tired of changing wires and PC cards every time you switch between network connectivity and going online or sending and receiving faxes, then you'll surely appreciate a PCMCIA card that supports simultaneous network and modem communications.

The Linksys PCMCIA LANmodem Card lets you plug into your network and then access the Internet or use your PC fax at the same time. The card supports Windows 95 and NT and works as a 10BaseT Ethernet LAN adapter and 28.8Kbps fax modem concurrently. The Type II card speeds file transfers with a 32KB modem buffer. The LANModem Card features Enhanced Cellular Ready technology, allowing you to dial into the Internet, and send and receive e-mail and faxes from anywhere.

$399 (street)
The Linksys Group
800-546-5797, 714-261-1288

If you're ready to catch the ISDN wave, the Fujitsu ISDN Internet Surfer can smooth your ride. The card is compatible with Microsoft Dial-up Networking and Hyperterminal, as well as most other popular communications software. It uses a PPP to connect you to the Internet at speeds up to 64Kbps, which helps when surfing 3-D and other graphics-rich Web sites.

The Type II card has an S/T universal four-wire ISDN circuit. The ISDN Internet Surfer ships with a wallet-sized ISDN service map showing the U.S. areas with ISDN availability. Fujitsu will bundle an Internet browser with the card, so you have someplace to go with all that ISDN speed.

The ISDN Internet Surfer is the newest member of the Fujitsu PC card family. The cards are compatible, hot-swappable and follow identical configuration routines.

$369
Fujitsu Microelectronics
800-642-7616, 408-922-9000

The U.S. Robotics Sportster Voice modem provides faster-than-normal transfer speeds, along with voice and full telephony features.

The Sportster Voice comes in internal and external models and has a maximum throughput of 33.6Kbps. It also gives you a full-duplex speakerphone and digital answering machine. You can use it for personal voice mail with multiple mailboxes, remote voice message and fax retrieval, fax on demand and caller ID.

Internal, $239; external, $279
U.S. Robotics
800-DIAL-USR, fax 847-676-7323

The Shark Tiger-288R and Shark Baby Tiger-288R DSVD modems afford you simultaneous voice capability and full telephony. The Tiger is SoundBlaster-compatible, with an IDE CD-ROM interface and ports for a microphone, speaker line out and joystick. The modems provide multiple voice mailboxes, caller ID, speed and phone book dialing, call and fax forwarding, and automatic paging. Optional bundling adds Media Ring Plus software for conferencing capabilities and a whiteboard application.

Tiger-288R, $289 ($339 for conferencing bundle); Baby Tiger-288R,
$239 ($279 for conferencing bundle)
Shark Multimedia
408-987-5400, fax 408-987-5424

SPRY Badger brings Windows NT file and print services to Windows for Workgroups 3.11 remote users. The dialer provides a point-to-point (PPP), Media Access Control layer to give WFWG users transparent access to the Internet and corporate intranets. Without the link, WFWG users dialing into an Internet protocol (IP)-based network with a PPP dialer cannot fully access Windows networking resources.

From $39 per user
SPRY, CompuServe Internet Division
800-447-2971, 206-957-8000

The Multi-Tech MultiModem ISI is a combination four-port modem/serial card with a modular design. It supports Microsoft's Remote Access Server software for smooth Windows NT support, and operates with TCP/IP and NetBIOS protocols. The MultiModem ISI also includes a Novell-certified driver for NetWare Connect.

$1,699
Multi-Tech Systems
800-328-9717, 612-785-3500