all in one printer to replace fax

[lozina]

I want to get my dad an all-in-one printer (prints, scans, copies, faxes) to replace his old printer and fax machine but there's one problem... his fax machine has a headset and an answer machine... somehow it must check incoming calls to determine if they are fax requests or not and then either receives the call as a fax or sends the caller to voice mail. Now, if I got an all-in-one which did not have an answer machine or headset, how can I best mimic this old behavior?

If I get a separate phone, how would the phone and fax machine independently know how to handle calls?

 

[Zepper]

If he's not averse to leaving his computer turnied on for whatever number of hours that faxes/calls might come in (a UPS is necessary for this type of duty), a good brand voice/fax/modem with some software like SmithMicro.com's HotFax Message Center 6 could do the job. Then you could get an all-in-one with just copy/scan/print functions... The scanner part would also be used to send faxes via HFMC.
. Also some (perhaps most) computers are able to be powered up by a modem signal. But that might take too long as people or fax machines might give up before the computer was ready. OTOH, some external modems have local memory for receiving faxes and voice messages so the computer doesn't have to be powered up all the time. Otherwise you can get AIOs that have ALL the functions you mentioned, but not for cheap...
. And there are also boxes that hook into the phone line and distribute calls among several devices based on the protocol you select. The most advanced of these cost around $100.
.bh.

 

[sixone]

I bought this last summer: HP Laserjet 3015, and have been very pleased.

It has in/out ports for a phone line, so you can plug in a phone. The machine will detect whether a caller is fax/voice, and answer when needed, letting all other calls go to the phone. It may not work if you have other phone extensions on that line, which I do, so it hasn't been an issue for me.

Hope this helps, and good luck in your search.