Does the unit need an answering machine to work?

     The unit works flawlessly by itself on a phone line to remote power cycle and fully control the power status  ON or OFF ) of any connected device. It can work also with an answering machine, modem or fax for flawless operation. For answering machine operation you just need a quite section of tape either in your initial message to callers or while entering a message to hit the security codes on your touch tone phone to activate the unit.  You would configure the RPS II Unit for  http://www.remotepowerswitch.com/instruct2_config.html manual operation, which will allow you to enter the security codes for control of the power. )