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Just five years ago, if you wanted to make sure you didn't miss important phone messages, you had one choice: a breakdown-prone answering machine that used plain old audiotape. No longer. The array of messaging systems and services now available to connection-obsessed Americans is truly dazzling, as are the tasks they can perform. You want to screen calls, phone in for messages from the road, and know the date and time Uncle Joe rang? Kid stuff. The newest systems, including fancy all-digital machines (up to $350 or so) and high-tech commercial answering services (up to $2,400 a year), can do practically everything from storing your teenagers' nonstop messages in separate mailboxes to rerouting your calls to your pager. You can even configure your home PC to take voice mail.

Problem is, sorting through all these new options can do exactly what a good messaging system is supposed to prevent: make your life more stressful. Not to worry. We interviewed a dozen industry analysts, manufacturers and savvy consumers, and then test-drove a number of machines and services ourselves. The result: We came up with terrific solutions for every personality type--from machine-averse Luddites to message-hungry moms. Choose the gizmo or service that suits your style, then check out the table at right for our picks of seven topnotch products and services.

--You want only to record messages when you're out and to screen calls when you're home. You need a digital or tape-based answering machine. Both digitals and the older tape-based machines take messages when you're unavailable, let you screen calls to avoid unwanted ones and allow you to retrieve messages while you're away from home. More versatile digital machines are usually more expensive than tape-based ones: They run $60 to $350, vs. $30 to $200 for the old-fashioned kind.

Despite the higher price, most people are better off with digitals, mainly because they offer the kind of convenience you can easily become addicted to. For example, they let you cruise through message playback much more quickly, erase specified messages while saving others, and even funnel calls to specific mailboxes that only selected family members have access to (more on that later). "It's like the difference between CDs and tapes," says Suzy Palitz, 35, a Boston-area psychologist who switched to an AT&T 1750 digital (now called Lucent Technology) last year.

Because digitals have fewer moving parts than tape machines, they're less likely to break down. They're also quieter (good-bye to the annoyance of a tape clicking on and off). The downside: Most store only 20 minutes' worth of messages (tapes can hold as many as 60) and the sound may be less clear.

Next dilemma: Should you buy a stand-alone answering machine, or a machine/phone combo? Some techmeisters warn that with a combination machine, you're sunk if one element--phone or messager--goes kerflooey. However, it's so handy to be able to call up messages from the handset of a cordless phone/answering machine, such as the Sony SPP-A900 ($349.95, pictured opposite), that it seems worth the risk. Also, it's usually cheaper to buy a combo than a phone and a machine separately.

--You hate machines--and those call-waiting beeps too. Sign up for the voice-mail service provided by your local phone company. The popularity of these services, now offered by all the Baby Bells, is exploding: More than 11% of households get them, up from a mere 4% in 1994. For roughly $7 a month, voice mail answers your calls when you don't and--most important--when you're on the phone with another call. That's something answering machines just can't do. Moreover, the service is invisible; no gadgets to clutter up your end table. "I like the simplicity," says Heidi Boghosian, 37, a New York City fund raiser who switched to Nynex's voice-mail service in 1990 after realizing that she was running through conventional message devices at the rate of about one a year.

Unfortunately, retrieving messages can be a pain. No light appears to tell you when you have a message; you have to pick up the phone and listen for a stuttering dial tone. Then you must dial a local phone number and enter your password before you hear your messages. Other drawbacks to weigh: The service automatically erases messages older than 21 to 30 days, and you can't screen your calls unless you pay an extra $6 a month for caller ID service, plus buy a special caller ID phone for about $200.

--You need to be accessible at all times. Consider a pager. More than 40 million Americans now carry those pocket-size gizmos, double the number that did just four years ago. One reason: souped-up options, including voice mail. A basic numeric pager (total cost for a month's local or regional service, plus pager rental: $7 to $10) tells you only the number of the caller. A text pager ($10 to $15) relays a brief, 15-word message to your pager. But a pager with voice-mail service ($15 to $20) assigns you a personal 800 number that callers can dial to leave you voice messages. Your pager then buzzes to show the caller's number or to indicate that you have a message waiting. If you want access to paging extras, like a service that zaps you stock quotes, sign up with a big national pager provider, such as PageNet or SkyTel. You'll find the best prices from local resellers, like your neighborhood electronics store. And because pager technology is constantly being upgraded, it makes more sense to lease a pager than to buy one.

--You have a big family or frequent houseguests. Tired of your kids accidentally deleting your messages--or sick of hearing theirs? Get multiple mailboxes. They are available both from your phone company's voice-mail service (additional cost: about $2.50 a month for, typically, four mailboxes) and on many high-end digital answering machines (additional cost: about $20). Callers hear a greeting that says something like: "Press one for Sue, two for Daniel or three for Eli." Your machine or service will indicate which mailboxes have messages waiting. You then retrieve messages from your private mailbox. Digital machines with mailboxes typically come with three (the most generous: the $279 Motorola 825, which sports nine), and voice-mail services typically offer four. If you need more, consider a computer answering system (see below).

--You're computer-savvy and work out of your home. Many computers now come loaded with voice/fax modems that, when linked to voice-mail software, can turn your PC into an answering machine. Unfortunately, many of these programs have proved to be, well, lousy performers. Stick with trustworthy products such as Hayes' Smartcom Message Center for Windows ($99; 800-723-8388). It takes voice messages as well as faxes, offers a mind-boggling 1,000 mailboxes, and logs in the name and number of the caller if you have caller ID. You can call in to retrieve both messages and faxes from the road. If you have a Mac, one of the best products available is Cypress Research's MegaPhone ($99; 888-288-0033). "Try before you buy," counsels Howard Baldwin, features editor at Macworld magazine. Most companies have demos you can download from their Websites.

--You're on the move, and getting messages fast is critical. If you rove from office to car phone to cell phone all day, consider springing for the ultimate voice-mail system: Wildfire Communications' Wildfire, which has about 5,000 subscribers. You get a 10-digit number that you program to follow you all day. Wildfire works entirely by speech recognition. You can program the service for as many as 150 phone numbers by name. For instance, in the morning you call your special number and say, "I'll be at home until 10:30, in the office until five, then in my car until six and then at Bob's for dinner." Wildfire recognizes the names and automatically forwards your calls and messages. Moreover, when friends or colleagues call, Wildfire asks them in a chirpy female voice, "Who's calling?," then tells you who's on the line. If you don't want to talk, tell it, "Take a message"--and it does.

The service isn't for the thin of wallet: The average user spends a whopping $150 to $200 a month. Ouch. But for some high fliers, getting messages when and where they want is worth almost any price.