Home phone needed that recognizes fax transmissions

[Austin]

Gents, for over 10 years I have had 2 phone lines. One is a dedicated fax line and the other I use for business. I am having problems with dedicated fax line. I am thinking of dropping the dedicated line if I can find a phone that can distinguish between a fax transmission and a regular call.

Can anyone make a suggestion? I would like a phone that also has voice mail built into it. Thank you.

 

[dpm802]

Gents, for over 10 years I have had 2 phone lines. One is a dedicated fax line and the other I use for business. I am having problems with dedicated fax line. I am thinking of dropping the dedicated line if I can find a phone that can distinguish between a fax transmission and a regular call.

Can anyone make a suggestion? I would like a phone that also has voice mail built into it. Thank you.

I have a 4-in-1 HP OfficeJet that does a great job of distinguishing between Voice and FAX calls. It shares the same number with my voice line, and has never failed to get it right with an incoming call, whether it be a Voice or a FAX, it always gets routed to the proper device.

I'm partial to HP printers, but I'm sure any brand of printer with built-in FAX can handle the same thing.

 

[Alacrity59]

You might want to try one of the Internet fax services by which you can send and receive faxes via email from anywhere in the world you can connect to the Internet. I know my local ISP Rogers has such a service for $8.00 per month for basic service 25 pages sent and I think 50 received. Higher volumes for a bit higher price and I'd bet they are not the lowest priced offering.

On the phone with voice mail front . . . My wife and I have been using a VOIP service from Primus Canada for our home telephone for about 3-4 years. I am very very happy with this as it is less than a third what I was paying Bell and amazing features included in the monthly charge such as voice mail and call treatments. Example of call treatments . . . when a 1-800 number (or any other number I program) calls it sounds to the caller that the call is ringing but it never rings through and never goes to voice mail. There is also a treatment called Find-me-follow-me so that if someone important to me calls it will switch over to my cell phone after a certain number of rings. I also have my phone go directly to voice mail after 9PM till 6AM.

 

[rickw]

It depends on your carrier and area. When I had Verison, using a 4 in 1 mchine, I had no trouble between the phone line, their automatic answering and the fax. When I moved, my carrier became ATT. In this area, I needed a seperate fax line because their answering service couldn't handle the fax. It is a different ring for fax or phone that must be differentiated.

 

[raisindot]

As others have said, it's not a phone you need but a fax machine or multi-function unit that can distinguish between an incoming fax call and answer if it is and a regular phone call, which it would "pass on" to your phone. Of course, if you get many faxes you'll need to keep the fax machine on all the time to intercept the fax calls.

As far as I know, no consumer brand phone can distinguish between fax calls and voice calls. In terms of phones with voice mail, there are all sorts of units out there that combine the phone with a dedicated digital voice mail system. Personally, I prefer the wireless versions. You really need to go to a Staples or Best Buy and check out the models yourself, since features and phone "feel" vary. While I personally prefer the "feel" of the Panasonic wireless phones, their connected answering machines don't display the number of calls as numbers--only as flashing beeps. This is a no-go for me. We've settled on a Uniden five-phone-plus-answering-machine set we found at our local big box store.

Jeff in Boston

 

[Swampfox]

What's a fax? People still use a fax?

 

[Austin]

What's a fax? People still use a fax?

Unfortunately, they still do.

 

[Swampfox]

Unfortunately, they still do.

For the life of me, I don't comprehend why. Quality is bad, and faxes seem to get "lost". I wish everyone would just use email.

I remember in the 80s when it was thought that by 2000 everyone would have a fax machine in their homes. *Trots off to watch Back To The Future Part II

 

[dpm802]

I remember in the 80s when it was thought that by 2000 everyone would have a fax machine in their homes. *Trots off to watch Back To The Future Part II

I have a FAX at home for personal (not business) use, and people look at me strange whenever I tell them that I do.

They are invaluable when dealing with insurance companies, banks, getting forms to fill out from government agencies, and just about every situation where you need to deal with hard copy information.

I don't understand why everyone doesn't have one.

 

[Swampfox]

I have a FAX at home for personal (not business) use, and people look at me strange whenever I tell them that I do.

They are invaluable when dealing with insurance companies, banks, getting forms to fill out from government agencies, and just about every situation where you need to deal with hard copy information.

I don't understand why everyone doesn't have one.

*Looks at David strange.

 

[Go West Young Man]

I have a FAX at home for personal (not business) use, and people look at me strange whenever I tell them that I do.

They are invaluable when dealing with insurance companies, banks, getting forms to fill out from government agencies, and just about every situation where you need to deal with hard copy information.

I don't understand why everyone doesn't have one.

Scanner. Email. Done.

 

[TwelveBravo]

I might be able to help. I work as a repairman for the local telephone company. Yes, a dying industry. I am not sure who provides your dial tone, but you should ask them about "distinctive ring".

With this option, you will have one POTS line ( Plain Old Telephone Service) but two separate numbers. Almost all faxes have the option to be set to answer a distinctive ring and recognize it as a fax transmission, while not answering incoming phone calls. You, and the fax machine, will know by the ring pattern if you are receiving a phone call or a fax. However, with this option, you will not be able to fax while you are using the phone for a conversation. Here, a distinctive ring number is included in our pricing bundle. I imagine this option would be much cheaper than paying for a separate billed dial tone.

 

[Austin]

I might be able to help. I work as a repairman for the local telephone company. Yes, a dying industry. I am not sure who provides your dial tone, but you should ask them about "distinctive ring".

With this option, you will have one POTS line ( Plain Old Telephone Service) but two separate numbers. Almost all faxes have the option to be set to answer a distinctive ring and recognize it as a fax transmission, while not answering incoming phone calls. You, and the fax machine, will know by the ring pattern if you are receiving a phone call or a fax. However, with this option, you will not be able to fax while you are using the phone for a conversation. Here, a distinctive ring number is included in our pricing bundle. I imagine this option would be much cheaper than paying for a separate billed dial tone.

Thanks for the great information. A lot of people I know no longer have land lines. They mostly have mobile numbers.

 

[TwelveBravo]

Thanks for the great information. A lot of people I know no longer have land lines. They mostly have mobile numbers.

I f not for the few land lines, and high speed internet (DSL), I would be without a job. I guess I'll just ride it until it dies. Good luck to you.

Rick