WINDOWS FAX AND SCAN - AUTOMATIC FAX RECEIVING/ANSWERING MACHINE

[SparkS]

I believe I have it all set up but I have a question I cannot find an
answer for.
Is it possible to use this in conjunction with a regular phone answering
machine? If I have the ans mach answer on fewer rings than this program the
program will not have a chance to kick in. I've set the program to receive a
fax on fewer rings than my ans mach will answer. If after the program
attempts to receive a fax if the incoming call is not a fax will it still
allow my phone to keep ringing so my ans machine will kick in?

I truly doubt anyone would ever send me a fax but being a puter person I'm
curious about this.

Help.

Thanks.

 

[Nonny]

Is it possible to use this in conjunction with a regular phone answering
machine? If I have the ans mach answer on fewer rings than this program the
program will not have a chance to kick in. I've set the program to receive a
fax on fewer rings than my ans mach will answer. If after the program
attempts to receive a fax if the incoming call is not a fax will it still
allow my phone to keep ringing so my ans machine will kick in?

Nope.

If you want to use the fax and your answering machine, there is a
device (costs about sixty bucks as I recall) that will sense if the
incoming call is a fax. If it is, it directs the call to the
fax/computer... if not, it will direct it to your phone/machine.

Go to Amazon.com and search for "fax/voice switch"

 

[Dominic Payer]

There are programs which will recognise whether the incoming call is fax or
voice and record it appropriately. For these to work, the computer must
always be on or in Sleep with the modem set to wake the machine in the BIOS
and Device Manager.

If you are using Windows Fax and Scan, you should set the voice answering
machine as you like and set Windows Fax and Scan to manual receive. You will
need to be present if a fax call is received as you will need to start the
fax reception manually.

If Windows Fax and Scan answers the call your voice answering machine will
never pick it up since the rings, which your answering machine is counting,
will have stopped.

 

[SparkS]

There are programs which will recognise whether the incoming call is fax or
voice and record it appropriately. For these to work, the computer must
always be on or in Sleep with the modem set to wake the machine in the BIOS
and Device Manager.

If you are using Windows Fax and Scan, you should set the voice answering
machine as you like and set Windows Fax and Scan to manual receive. You will
need to be present if a fax call is received as you will need to start the
fax reception manually.

If Windows Fax and Scan answers the call your voice answering machine will
never pick it up since the rings, which your answering machine is counting,
will have stopped.

Thank you both for sharing your expertise with a neophyte. I'll answer both
in this reply and save a bit of space.

Since I doubt anyone would actually ever fax me I think I'll let it alone.
I know how to send out faxes now so that may be of use?

Having to be here to manually receive the fax seems pretty ridiculous and
I can't see spending the money for the device that was mentioned. How does
one know if it's a fax coming in and not a normal call? Seeing a known fax
phone number appearing on the caller ID would work.Again it's not worth
monkeying around with my BIOS & device manager. This complete piece of
garbage Vista has enough problems as it is!


Thanks again for the valuable info.

Who knows I may get curious again and check into the software route?

I had forgotten how terribly slow Fax is. I remember copying news photos
and WX maps off shortwave radio at home but I guess I'm showing my age now.

Regards,

 

[Dominic Payer]

A fax switch works by answering the call and listening for a fax tone. If a
fax tone is heard, the call is switched to the fax machine, otherwise it is
switched to the voice line. The caller is paying for the call from the
moment the call is answered by the fax switch. This is not a good solution
if you receive faxes rarely.

Software solutions do the same, but a delay - number of rings - can be set
before the call is answered.

If you have a US Robotics or 3Com modem, http://www.usr.com/bvrp/bvrp.asp is
a free software solution.

 

[SparkS]

A fax switch works by answering the call and listening for a fax tone. If a
fax tone is heard, the call is switched to the fax machine, otherwise it is
switched to the voice line. The caller is paying for the call from the
moment the call is answered by the fax switch. This is not a good solution
if you receive faxes rarely.

Doesn't seem that would allow an answering machine to pick up once the
switch answered the call if it wasn't a fx.

Software solutions do the same, but a delay - number of rings - can be set
before the call is answered.

If you have a US Robotics or 3Com modem, http://www.usr.com/bvrp/bvrp.asp is
a free software solution.

Don't have a clue, is internal and I never needed to know what it was.

Is a PCI Soft Data Fax modem. I thought if it was one that you mentioned I
might try that software.

I really don't need any of it since I know I'll never get an incoming fax
that
I haven't scheduled ahead of time.

 

[Dominic Payer]

A fax switch generates rings on the line after it has decided which line to
transfer the call to. The answering machine will respond after the set
number of rings.