Fax Machine in Primary Line

[amitroy5]

I was wondering how I can place a fax machine on my primary phone line and have it detect if a fax is coming in. This way, if a fax comes in, the fax machine will receive it. Otherwise, the phone will ring. Thanks!

[mips]

I don't think this is possible with a standard POTS line.

There is no distinction between a voice or data call and they are all treated the same. The only way to know wheter the call is a fax call is to answer it.

Speak to your telco, maybe you can have something like two numbers on the same line but with different ringtones or something of the sorts. just taking a wild guess here.

I think ISDN does offer the option to distinguise between devices but that is a whole different kettle of fish.

[mikebravo]

Go to a vendors (e.g. Canon or Brother or Panasonic) website and on their support pages read the operators manual to see what answer modes are available. I use my Canon FaxPhone L80 in answering machine mode so that I can screen my calls and yet have the FAX pick up the line if it hears a faxmachine sending.

[T313C0mun1s7]

Any FAX that supports auto answer should be able to do this for you. The FAX will listen for FAX Tones (the beeps you hear while the FAX is waiting for an answer) the FAX Tones come in between rings much like Caller ID Data. If the FAX is set to auto answer it will pickup the phone if there are FAX Tones on the line and leave it alone otherwise.

There are some exceptions to this depending on FAX brand and mixing of features. For example, Brother FAX machines are compatabile with distinctive ring (one physical phone line with more than one phone number, the number dialed determines the ring pattern). However, to use the distinctive ring feature you need to put the FAX in manual mode and it will answer any and all calls with that ring pattern.

It is also important to note that normally you are not able to mix a FAX and an answering machine unless you use a FAX switch like "The Stick" because the answering machine knows nothing of FAX Tones and the tones don't come in untill between the second and third rings.

[warp99]

It is also important to note that normally you are not able to mix a FAX and an answering machine unless you use a FAX switch like "The Stick" because the answering machine knows nothing of FAX Tones and the tones don't come in untill between the second and third rings.

You can use an answering machine and a fax machine by having the sender dial manually, then pressing a certain key to send the fax. You can also use distinctive ringing if available from your local telco, but your fax/phone and answering machine must be able to use distinctive ringing.

Finally if you use a voice mail system instead of an answering machine many telco's have SMB services that will hear the fax tones and switch accordingly. :cool: