SoftGSM review

Connecting your mobile phone to your notebook can be something of a minefield. Not only is it expensive - first you have to buy the GSM-ready PC Card modem, then the kit specific to your mobile phone - but you may find your phone isn't even supported. SoftGSM aims to solve these logistical nightmares by providing a software GSM modem that works with a range of Nokia and Ericsson mobile phones.

Unless you own a Nokia 5100/6100 series phone or an Ericsson 6/7/8 series, SoftGSM won't work. You'll also need a notebook with a serial port - although Windows CE versions of SoftGSM also exist - as the SoftGSM package consists of an 80cm cable that connects directly to this rather than a PC Card. Apart from the cable, the package only contains a floppy disk and a 12-page getting started booklet. Installation is fast and a single application handles the SMS (short messaging service) and phone book functions. However, despite using InstallShield and leaving the requisite uninstall data files on your hard disk, no uninstall option appears in the Control Panel or Start menu.

Using the SoftGSM modem is very simple. You create a new dial-up networking service and link it to the SoftGSM modem. This all worked first time, and within minutes of installing the software and connecting the hardware the Internet connection was established. The SMS handling and phone book management are handled by separate tabs of the basic program, but neither provides more than basic functions.

The SMS manager will let you compose SMS messages off-line and then send them via your phone. For incoming SMS messages the software will only download messages from the phone if it's running when the messages arrive - it doesn't let you access messages already stored in the phone. It doesn't even provide a facility for stitching together consecutive SMS messages which result when long emails, for example, are split into the requisite number of 160-character SMS messages. You'd have to copy and paste the bits into a separate application to achieve this effect.

The Phonebook manager lets you download the phone book from the main memory or SIM of your mobile phone and then edit or add to the list before uploading it back into the phone. There's no provision for interfacing to third-party applications of any sort, so if you wanted to share names and numbers with Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Organiser, you'd have to do it one by one using the Windows clipboard.

Both components are very poor compared to the software supplied with the SnapOn GSM modem for the Palm series. This lets you copy and paste numbers between the Palm address book and the phone, and also stitches together incoming SMS messages it thinks are part of a longer message.

With a GSM-ready PC Card typically costing £60, and the accompanying kit for your phone costing a further £70, the SoftGSM is a relatively cheap option. However, it doesn't seem quite so cheap when you consider what you get, and this feeling is compounded by the Help file which is full of grammatical and spelling mistakes. I was left feeling that this was a product cobbled together in a market thin on competitors, but until something better comes along SoftGSM is the best solution to this particular problem.

Author: Derek Cohen