re: how to RECEIVE faxes
Thursday, March 3, 2005 at 5:57 pm
Windows Me Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Jack Gulley
(5917 messages posted)
Ugh... Brain Check.
To receive a fax, you have to have a phone line and a FAX modem that is not being
used. So before you worry about a program that can use your existing phone line and
computer modem, you have to sort out you little hardware problem. If you are using
your modem and phone line while connecting to the Internet, you can not receive a
FAX over the same line and equipment. It can not do both at the same time. To start
with, your phone line will be busy!
You could get Call Waiting and not disable it when you connect to the Internet.
This will allow any call to disconnect your Internet connection. You could then manually
start a FAX receive program that tries to answer the call. But it would not be very
reliable. And any phone calls would disconnect you from the Internet.
To do what you said you wanted to do, can only be done by signing up for a fax
receive service, where they call the service's number and they receive the FAX for
you and then send it to you in an e-mail, which you can download while on line.
Or you could get a second phone line for FAX and a second modem on your system,
and any good FAX program.
That said, there is a workable solution, but it costs.
There is feature with newer modems called "Modem On Hold" that allows you to receive
phone calls while On Line to the Internet. It requires a "Modem-On-Hold" program
on your computer, a "Modem On Hold" capable modem, and a "Modem On Hold" call waiting
feature service that you pay your phone company for, and support for the feature
in your ISP's modems. You have to have all of these to make it work. This is designed
to interrupt your Internet connection for a short period to allow you to receive
incoming calls. The ISP's modem and your modem place the connection "on hold" while
you use the line to answer the call. During this interruption, you modem is still
in use for the Internet connection. And there is a time limit of several minutes
that this on hold can last before the connection is dropped.
To receive an incoming FAX call, you then need an additional box connected in
your phone line that then recognizes the incoming FAX call, and switches to the FAX
machine or phone if not a FAX call. Your FAX machine can then be a second FAX capable
modem in your system with a FAX Receive program. I have seen this setup working,
but only after weeks of work trying to get it setup. And it does cost because of
the additional services from the phone company, and the switch box and modem.
My comment is, that computers do not make good reliable FAX machines, and FAX
machines are cheap. Most people just allow the Call Waiting feature to disconnect
the Internet connection and allow the switch box to switch the incoming call to
the phone or FAX machine as it is designed to. Or resort to DSL which allows a FAX
and phone to work and not interrupt the Internet connection.
- Written in response to:
- how to RECEIVE faxes (Di: Thursday, March 3, 2005 at 3:12 pm)
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