Dear dep825:

Here are your answers:

1) TEST DRIVE -- YES! Just send an email to preview@presto.com with a photo or PDF attachment. You will receive an email in return from Presto with a link to a site that shows how a Presto user would receive your email.

2) CALENDARS -- Presto does not offer an interactive calendar. The calendar templates you may have seen from Presto are blank. However, a number of us at Presto use Google Calendar to send daily schedules to our Presto Printing Mailboxes and it works just great. Visit www.google.com and navigate to "calendar" to find out more.

3) DIALING -- The Presto Printing Mailbox is completely silent when dialing. The only time the machine makes any noise at all is the machinery noise when it is printing and after it has finished it sounds a tone (which can be made louder, softer or silent with the volume + and Â- buttons).

4) EMAIL -- Your email works as normal. It really doesn't relate to Presto. What I mean is that if you put your parentÂ's presto address in the "To:" line, and a sibling in the "CC:" line, your email will be routed by your ISP to the Presto Mail Service and also to your sibling. Only the mail that comes to the Presto Mail Service wil be authenticated against the approved senders list, formatted as you have chosen, and prepared for pickup the next time the Printing Mailbox calls in to retrieve mail. Also, remember you can put as many friends and family on the approved senders list as you wish, so your parent(s) can receive mail from more people than just you. Getting them to be part of an extended family chain-email list is a great way to keep them "in the family loop."

If you are still unsure, I suggest you take advantage of the 60-day free trial available when you purchase through Presto.com. Then, you don't have any risk!

I hope this helped.

Presto Insider: Peter Radsliff
VP Marketing, Presto Services Inc.

Having Comcast in his apartment doesn't really tell me enough. Are you saying that Comcast is the provider of his phone service? (not just cable tv?). If Comcast does provide his telephone service, the question to ask of Comcast is "Whether or not he can add a fax machine to his phone line". This should determine whether or not the phone line has been converted to being a standard analog line (because a fax machine has the same line requirements as Presto).

Presto Insider: Peter Radsliff
VP Marketing, Presto Services Inc.

There is no software for your computer. You merely point your Web browser to http://www.presto.com/signup which will allow you to signup for the service and put in your credit card for payment ($9.99 per month or $99.99 per year -- no contracts required). Then, all "software" you access is done through your web browser, interacting with the Presto Mail Service online.

In terms of sending email to your Father, you just use whatever email application or webmail application is your favorite and use it as you normally do. When you go through the Presto sign-up process, you will be asked to choose an email address for your Father. That will be the one you use to email him.

Presto Insider: Peter Radsliff
VP Marketing, Presto Services Inc.

Great. To you and anyone else who has questions they need answered before they feel comfortable to make a purchase, don't hesitate to post a question or send me a private message.

Presto Insider: Peter Radsliff
VP Marketing, Presto Services Inc.