Fax and Scan

[Stang Cobra 04]

When I had a computer meltdown, I upgraded from XP to a computer with Vista
Home Premium edition. I spent the extra money only to lose an important
feature, the ability to send faxes and to scan with my HP All-in-one psc
2410. I do not want to upgrade to Ultimate and pay for a bunch of features I
don't want and would not use. Microsoft should give a lot of thought to
selling Fax and Scan is an upgrade feature. It could be downloadable from
the Microsoft website.

Like many users, I've been using Microsoft starting with DOS-MS. I little
customer support with the lack of an important feature would be a good PR
move for Microsoft.

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http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co...microsoft.public.windows.vista.print_fax_scan

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Your HP can fax in its own right as long as it is hooked up to a telephone
jack. What has this to do with lack of Fax capability in Vista Home Premium?

 

[Dave]

I have an HP 6110 AIO... and Vista Home Premium.
To send the few faxes that I do, I just print out a document, and fax it
manually, no big deal.

To scan, which I do very frequently, I purchased VueScan, which works very
well.
http://www.hamrick.com/
Free trial period.

 

[Stang Cobra 04]

The HP will not fax from or scan to the computer using Vista without Vista
Fax and Scan even though it is connected to a phone line. This is per HP.
The HP control program does not appear and HP does not have a Vista driver
for download. I can probable fax a document from the glass, but then I can
just get a fax machine and do the same thing.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

You don't need to fax through the computer. It will fax directly out. Re
scanning, Dave has offered a solution.

 

[jl2008]

I recently purchase the Microsoft Vista Business Edition and can't seem to
send/receive fax using the Windows Fax and Scan. The HP 6530b Notebook has a
built-in Agere modem and I'm hooked up the phone line to the notebook. What
am I doing wrong?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

How could we know? We have no idea what you're doing. Pretend this is a
newsgroup and we aren't there watching you. Provide the following
information:
1. Whether your modem is on the VHCL
2. How you configured your Fax Account and any error messages you got when
you did so.
3. How you are sending the fax (complete detail).
4. What happens when you try to send a fax.

 

[Ms. Accountability]

I disagree with Dave. It is a big deal that we consumers of Vista have to go
back to the dark ages and fax documents as such instead of leveraging the
convenience of our computer technology. We multitaskers don't have time to
consistently print and fax ...

 

[Chuck]

Think about this--
Faxing via windows has always been sort of basic, unless you used a third
party fax program.
The multiple addressees capability was likely limited to prevent "fax spam",
and keep MS out of that hassle.
Several earlier versions of windows had a modem command reply parser that
had problems, and was patched to "fall through" when the problems occurred.
The only symptom shown to the "normal" user was that the taskbar icon showed
P/C to modem connect speed rather than the true connect rate. The specific
cause was that the data read from the modem might have garbage characters in
front of the actual reply string. Since these characters were random, and
the exact number was also random, it was not a simple fix when you added in
the variation in delay times from one modem to another. This was compounded
by "hardware" and "software" modems. The "software" modems required a mfr
supplied driver, which often did not meet the windows interoperability &
programming standards. (The mfrs had to "cheat" to make the drivers work)

When you add the screaming and yelling from various software houses that
sold specialty fax software (for business)
It's no wonder that MS provided/provides minimal fax capability. Another
issue was that the TCPIP stack required additional functionality to support
fax over a network. In win 3.1(1) this was provided by software houses with
a custom TCPIP stack. MS decided that the add-ons to the stack might cause
a vulnerability, and elected to not implement them in later versions of
windows that came with MS TCPIP stack. At the time, software houses had
problems getting full disclosure and information from MS.

At one point it looked like the fax software was going to cause as big a
legal hassle as the IE/Netscape/Mozilla debacle.
(So, all in all, it's not to surprising that windows fax functionality is
not what some would like it to be.)

Now if you decided to complain about the Vista versions that don't and
should have fax capability, I'd agree that this was a really dumb move, and
was (pure conjecture) likely left out to reduce the support headache that
windows fax has always caused.

 

[abk]

Microsoft has to fix the problem systematically through proper design
modification of its software so that support people do not get headache
rather than leaving the fax/scan capability out. The idea that HP printer can
fax and scan independently is naive. Yes, it can but then, if this is the
case, why there is 3rd party fax software? MVP should recommend everyone to
buy all in one systems and do not use computer for these functions! This is
dumb.

 

[Chuck]

I'm afraid you are "beating a dead horse". Many of the newer all in ones
function only as a computer supported printer and scanner, with the fax
function working as an independent stand alone fax machine would work.

Microsoft has enough trouble supporting data modems, let alone
fax/data/voice modems. Third party software houses usually write a stripped
version that some OEMs give away with a new machine. Customers that need a
full function fax system end up buying the full feature version.

The problem is not unique to HP all in ones, although lately HP customers
seem to have more than the usual share of driver/software related problems.

I really don't like all in ones, and prefer seperate printers and fax
machines. My experience has been that the seperate units are more reliable,
and have a somewhat longer service life. Having said that, I do own an Epson
workforce 600.

 

[1bene]

I agree 100% with these comments. Preferences aside, there is a genuine need
for fax capability direct from the document program. There should be a patch
or at very least , option to buy, a tool compatible with the OS. I, for one,
refuse to pay for Ultimate or a stand alone fax machine when it should be
included as a basic tool. If anyone can offer a viable solution, we would
like to hear from you.
BVRP offers a stand alone program but it will not configure in the document
program.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I agree 100% with these comments. Preferences aside, there is a genuine
need
for fax capability direct from the document program. There should be a
patch
or at very least , option to buy, a tool compatible with the OS. I, for
one,
refuse to pay for Ultimate or a stand alone fax machine when it should be
included as a basic tool. If anyone can offer a viable solution, we would
like to hear from you.
BVRP offers a stand alone program but it will not configure in the
document
program.

There is something that you can buy. It is called Snappy Fax..

http://www.snappysoftware.com/snappyfax/sfscreenshot.htm