For speed of installation and configuration as well as ease of administration, you can't beat AltaVista Forum 98. Out of the box, Digital's package offers comprehensive and integrated applications, including calendar, discussion and document forums, e-mail, newspaper, links, chat and polling. What's more, the product is easily modifiable using TCL programming language and the included Forum SDK. Forum 98, which provides a highly customizable user environment, also supports more Web servers and OSes than any other system we evaluated.

AltaVista Forum 98's active e-mail interface records all changes or activities in any area a user is tracking. Its robust filtering rules let you automatically file or delete selected messages before they're visible in the message box. For calendaring, a simple point-and-click lets you add an appointment or to-do item, view another person's calendar, request a meeting or change your preferences, such as who has access to your calendar.

The product facilitates group efforts by providing easy and intuitive views and tools. The new List Unseen feature shows you documents and discussion topics that have been added to forums you're tracking. And AltaVista Forum 98 includes a chat server and enhanced search capabilities.

AltaVista Forum 98, $495 to $3,995,
Digital Equipment Corp.,
(800) 344-4825, (978) 493-5111.
www.altavista.software.digital.com