Fax machines that can distinguish voice/fax calls?

[flot]

Hey guys -

A few office store employees have told me that a lot of the new fax machines out there are friendly to voice/data calls. Which is to say, I can put the fax machine on my main phone line, and it will determine if a call is a fax, and pick up... and if not, it will ring.

Are they full of crap, or is there any truth to this? Reading the descriptions on the boxes for most of the fax machines, I have seen no evidence of these features... ?

 

[wfbberzerker]

well i have a combination fax machine/telephone, so as far as i've used it, it can tell the difference between fax/voice calls.

 

[NogginBoink]

It's true, but you misinterpreted.

I plug my fax machine into the wall, and my answering machine into my fax machine.

When the phone rings, eventually the answering machine picks up (four rings).

The fax machine 'listens in' to that call, since it's piped through the fax machine. If it hears the 'fax beeps,' it disconnects the answering machine and turns on it's fax guts to receive the fax.

 

[flot]

Hmm, ok, the two of you seem to be completely at odds with each other...

wfbberzerker, can you clarify?

Noggin, that is the minimum functionality that I'd expect, but that might not cut it for my application.

Basically here's the deal: My dad is setting up a small office, which has 2 phone lines. Line 1 is his main voice line, and if that is busy, it will "roll over" and make line 2 ring. HOWEVER: Line 2 is the dedicated fax line. So basically what I need here is a way for the fax machine on line 2 to decide if an incoming call is a fax or not, and only make the phone ring if it is not a fax. (This doesn't strike me as impossible and I presume this is what the $90 fax/phone switches do... I think they "send" a ring to the downstream phone if it turns out to be a voice call, or somehow monitor the line without triggering a pickup...

 

[Comp625]

Is this true with all fax machines or just certain ones? What about all-in-one machines like an HP OfficeJet 6110, 7110, 7130, etc...?

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: flot
Hmm, ok, the two of you seem to be completely at odds with each other...

wfbberzerker, can you clarify?

Noggin, that is the minimum functionality that I'd expect, but that might not cut it for my application.

Basically here's the deal: My dad is setting up a small office, which has 2 phone lines. Line 1 is his main voice line, and if that is busy, it will "roll over" and make line 2 ring. HOWEVER: Line 2 is the dedicated fax line. So basically what I need here is a way for the fax machine on line 2 to decide if an incoming call is a fax or not, and only make the phone ring if it is not a fax. (This doesn't strike me as impossible and I presume this is what the $90 fax/phone switches do... I think they "send" a ring to the downstream phone if it turns out to be a voice call, or somehow monitor the line without triggering a pickup...

The only way you'll be able to do that is with a fax machine that understands distinctive ring.

Otherwise, the fax machine has no way to tell if it's a fax call or not without taking the line off-hook. Once that's done, and it's a voice call, there's no way to put the line back on-hook without hanging up on the caller. (I suppose the fax machine could put the caller on hold...)

Hm. I guess either of those would work... I don't know what fax machines (if any) would support these features.

 

[stonecold3169]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: flot
Hmm, ok, the two of you seem to be completely at odds with each other...

wfbberzerker, can you clarify?

Noggin, that is the minimum functionality that I'd expect, but that might not cut it for my application.

Basically here's the deal: My dad is setting up a small office, which has 2 phone lines. Line 1 is his main voice line, and if that is busy, it will "roll over" and make line 2 ring. HOWEVER: Line 2 is the dedicated fax line. So basically what I need here is a way for the fax machine on line 2 to decide if an incoming call is a fax or not, and only make the phone ring if it is not a fax. (This doesn't strike me as impossible and I presume this is what the $90 fax/phone switches do... I think they "send" a ring to the downstream phone if it turns out to be a voice call, or somehow monitor the line without triggering a pickup...

The only way you'll be able to do that is with a fax machine that understands distinctive ring.

Otherwise, the fax machine has no way to tell if it's a fax call or not without taking the line off-hook. Once that's done, and it's a voice call, there's no way to put the line back on-hook without hanging up on the caller. (I suppose the fax machine could put the caller on hold...)

Hm. I guess either of those would work... I don't know what fax machines (if any) would support these features.

Bingo. Distinctive ring is cheap, you might want to look into that, it's like a dollar a month or something extra. Another thing that makes this method alright is that most fax machines will automatically redial if the opposing party hangs up. So if you pick up a call and it's a fax, you could even disconnect and most will immediately try to send again.

 

[flot]

Annoyingly, distinctive ring conflicts with the rollover feature of the two lines... IE he can't do the rollover and also have distinctive ring enabled.

I can see HOW this could be accomplished; the fax could pick up the phone, then broadcast a fake "ring" to the person on the other end and also send the voltage to a connected extention to ring the phone. While it is faking it, it listens for the fax sounds and if they are there it connects to the fax machine - if not it fakes out a phone co ring to your regular phone, and you answer it normally.... ?

 

[wfbberzerker]

well, if i get a fax, the machine rings once, and then prints the fax. if its a phone call, it keeps on ringing.

 

[CrazyPerson]

let the answer machine pick up, if not voice, then it well turn over to fax

 

[flot]

wfbberzerker, that sounds like exactly what I need... what's the make/model of your fax machine??