William said:
The mechanism is that AT&T ran fiber optics in and it had everything
including TV (which I didn't take). I don't think any of the old copper
that came up to the house is being used, but it's still there and I may
yet make them put me back. I don't know how AT&T gets into the phone
traffic lines.
I thought the same as you, that 4 KHz of bandwidth is still there and I
should be able to use it the same way.....but the modem "doesn't find
the line". I checked with the Hot Fax software guys and they said "It's
old, we don't make FAX gear any more, and we don't support it". That's
why I'm in the market for software to install which carries a claim that
it works with U-Verse. Last response up was to a supplier who says "Try
it for free for 30 days".
This is the reply I was unable to send yesterday.
Sometimes but not always (and perhaps not even often) the analog
data/fax modem will not work with a VOIP (Voice Over IP) service. It is
typical to lose fax capabilities when you discard the POTS service and
go with VOIP.
So you had to discontinue your old POTS service with whomever was your
telco and switch over to using VOIP with your new ISP. Of course, you
could discontinue the VOIP service and resume the POTS service to get
back the fax functionality. Or you could drop using the analog data/fax
modem altogether and go with using an online eFax service (some are
free, some are paid, and there are security issues with your data going
or coming through their service but then fax isn't a secure protocol,
anyway, along with anyone seeing your fax at the other end if you
connected to the correct other end).
Instead of my ISP's (Comcast's) VOIP service, I went with the far
cheaper MagicJack VOIP service. My analog data/fax modem won't work
with VOIP. Some MJ users say their fax modem works okay but that
doesn't help me. So I solved the issue by using online fax services for
both sending and receiving faxes. I use GotMyFax or FaxZero to send
faxes and a free eFax to receive faxes via e-mail.
If you need to use your analog fax/data modem or a fax machine to send
or receive your faxes, especially for business use, then you'll have to
go back to using the POTS service from your telco or get a 2nd line
using POTS (and use the VOIP service as another phone line). If you're
doing a lot of faxing, you'll want a dedicated POTS line for your fax
modem/machine, anyway, to keep your primary line from getting tied up
with faxing (receive or send) and your voice calls from getting picked
up by the fax modem/machine (which has your callers hearing the fax
tones); else, you'll have to get a fax switch that listens for fax tones
and, if present, switches the call to your fax modem/machine and, if
not, switches the call to your telephone.
Your hardware setup won't let you fax using VOIP. You'll need a POTS
line from your telco to fax (unsubscribe from VOIP and resume POTS
service or use them both to have separate "phone" lines) or start
looking into using online fax services.
