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Have read all your forums on this.
One from an admin says we have been using the fax over VOIP for years.
Other says FAX dopesnt work over VOIP.
What is the latest development?
Free Incoming fax accounts are available on the web - But outgoing choice is very very limited.
Can we use the 2nd clone line for Outgoing fax with conventional All-in-One printers? If there is a limitation - please update.
thanks in advance.
My understanding of FAX over VOIP is that it is really hit-or-miss. Some people have it working while others can't. I tried using my old Faxmodem on my VOIPo line and couldn't get it to work. I tried changing the settings and even adding a backwards DSL filter to no avail.
VOIPo give you free outgoing fax on your vPanel. Works great for me. As you said there are some free incoming fax solutions on the 'Net or you can get a $36/year fax number from VOIPo that will forward incoming faxes to your email as .PDF files.
If you really need to use a "fax machine" for high volume work or whatever I suggest you keep a landline for that. Use VOIPo for your voice calls.
I just switched from Comcast and was set up originally with a phone line splitter for my fax machine(which is just an epson workForce 500). My first try to fax two documents worked perfectly(at least the message said they went through).
First off before I comment to much, I addressed this in a pre-sales area of the forum as well... But my point is I am a VoIPo reseller and chose VoIPo for many reasons to include with my business. You WILL ALWAYS run into faxing issues via the internet. ALWAYS. If you are trying to use an actual fax machine you have to mess around with the "bog" rate of send and slow it way down in order for it to work. Broadband sends information MUCH faster than copper lines. I copper line tops out at 48.8k if a single loop. Changing your settings on your machine can help you.
My best advice is to get an e-fax number from VoIPo attached to your current account and do straight e-faxing. My business doesnt use voipo efax, but I use a different solution, but i have tested voipo and it works just the same. The sending of e-fax's with PDF's out and in is so much more simplistic and the way things are going to go anyways.
Wish you the best of luck.
When I had Qwest VOIP I never had any trouble faxing from my AIO. Since switching to VOIPO I've never gotten the fax machine to work.
But my fax needs are light, no need for incoming, so I find the outgoing fax utility in Vpanel to actually be more convenient than using a fax machine.
When I had Vonage I was able to send and receive faxes from my computer, using Winfax, Windows Fax, whatever. Just print to fax, then the fax application takes over. Haven't been able to send faxes with vOipO, but I've been able to use the send-fax feature in vPanel. I think they are getting thru to the number i'm calling but I haven't heard comfirmation from them yet. I'm getting the email saying it was sent. That said, the pdf attachment in the email, didn't look right, for the microsoft word doc file that I sent. I simply converted this to a tif, and then the pdf that voipo sent me looked proper.
When dialing a fax machine, I listened in on my audio phone handset to try and hear what the problem was. Voipo or my fax program or my fax modem was sending a beep every second or so, which I though was odd. The fax machine I called answered, but it's noises didn't seem to synch up with the noises being produced by my fax modem. There is a fax terminology for this synchronization, but I forget what it is. Then, in addition to the chorus of noises, from the 2 fax devices, and the once per second beep being added, I heard another ring sound - like you hear when the number you call is ringing - as if the number I called was forwarding the call, dialing out to another phone. Doesn't make sense to me.
I don't have a second phone number that I can use to test whether I can recieve incoming faxes on my voipo number, with my computer fax application.
OK, today I tried turning off Error Correction on my modem, and the fax appeared to have gone through.
In Windows XP, I did Control Panel > phone and modem > modem tab > [modem highlighted] > Properties button > Advanced tab > Change Default Preferences button > data protocol dropdown box select “disabled.” Normally the protocol selected in this dropdown box would be "standard EC," I think that must stand for "standard Error Correction." If Error Correction is set to "disabled," in the next dropdown box, "compression," the value is automatically changed from "enabled" to "disabled;" you can confirm this by closing the window and re-opening it.
As I mentioned in my previous message, I noticed before that there is a beep heard during the call - but with EC disabled, the beep stops playing after the modems "align," synchronize. There is another word but I still can't remember it.
Note that whether EC can be left on or needs to be turned off may depend on the the kind of fax device or modem on the other end, or how it is configured.
Ill share this not to discourage but as information. http://www.soft-switch.org/foip.html
YMMV
Quite interesting..
Thanks
Hello Everyone,
When dealing with voip services it is hit or miss when it comes to transmission type devices, alarm panels,fax machines, etc. There is a big difference between digital and analog communication. To be safe dont use voip for these types of devices because it may be working now but when you really need it there may be a issue, damage, or loss. Companies know of the issues and some have found ways on their end to correct some of the issues to make it appear to work good one of those is vontage, but when their fix fails you will be back in the same boat as everyone else. Because of those companies correcting or managing the transmission people believe that voip can be used for these devices. If you read the manuals for the equipment including alarm panels the manufactures have updated their manuals to have clauses when using voip services.
Alarm panels have a upgrade now to communicate internet, or cellular and there are fax to email services of which VOIPo offers.
I've noticed that despite all the claims in this tread that using voip for sending and receiving a fax is not dependable, that the user manual for my ATA, a Grandstream HT702 ATA, says that the fxs port can be connected to analog phones and fax machines, and that "The HT70X is a full feature voice and fax-over IP device." Also it "supports T.38 Fax." Also "T.38 compliant Group 3 Fax Relay up to 14.4kpbs and auto-switch to G.711 for Fax Pass-through, Fax Datapump V.17, V.19, V.27ter, V.29 for T.38 fax relay"
You can get the user manual from grandstream's web site.
Also, on pg 21
Also, there are some settings that can be made, however I don't see any in the "basic settings" screen, which is the only one end users have access to. There are 2 levels of access, end user access, which voipo customers have, and administrators access, which has been changed by voipo so as to keep customers out.Quote:
FAX SUPPORT
HT70X supports FAX in two modes: 1) T.38 (Fax over IP) and 2) fax pass through. T.38 is the preferred
method because it is more reliable and works well in most network conditions. If the service provider
supports T.38, please use this method by selecting Fax mode to be T.38 (default). If the service provider
does not support T.38, pass-through mode can be used.
I'm not sure what T.38 means, and whether or not voipo supports T.38.
I am not so sure about the technical details, but I can send and receive fax using HT702 (VOIPo) provided and using a Canon MF4570dn multi functional printer without any glitch. No default settings has changed on the SIP adapter.
Fax settings has changed to:
TX Start Speed: 9600 bps
RX Start Speed: 9600 bps
Slower speed would be better for VoIP fax.
Again, the compatibility depends on the provider, fax machine, ATA - For me luckily the combination works good. Previously I had a HP3305 MFP and it did not work well with VOIPo, but worked with PhonePower. Now, Canon does not work well with PhonePower but works great with VOIPo. Anyways VOIPo is my primary line :cool:
I fax using the fax-modem on my computer and the Fax program that comes with windows XP. I also have a cheap flatbed scanner. Sending an outgoing fax from a MS Word file or a scanned in image is just a matter of choosing "fax" on the print-to list, instead of choosing an actual printer.
Ya think I should adjust the flow-control settings on the fax-modem? Choices are (1) hardware, (2) Xon-Xoff, or (3) off.
Also there are settings in XP for "transmit buffer" and the "receive buffer."
I was successful at sending faxes a while ago, after I turned off error correction. But now, with error correction still off, I can't send fax anymore. I can try again after I change the speed to 9600, but don't know who I can send test faxes to without annoying them! I already got out the important fax I needed to send, using voipo's [phone number]@fax.voipo.com system. Printing a MS word document to fax doesn't work out well with this system. I convert to *.tif first, then print the *.tif to Fax.
Acc to what I can figure out voipo does not support T.38; and vonage is one of the few companies that does. This suggests I should set my ATA to "pass-through" but I think I'd need admin priveleges to do so.
OK, I found out you can test fax, if you go to http://faxtoy.net/
I reduced my speed to 9600 and now fax is workingl Thank you JacobsLive!
You are very welcome! Glad that helped :)Quote:
Originally Posted by nomenclator
Those who say that FAXing is hit-or-miss are correct. Much depends upon the broadband service. When I had Comcast with 6 MB speed, FAXing was usually successful. Now that I live where extended DSL at 512k is the fastest available, it's usually not successful. Voipo's outgoing FAX feature isn't reliable, either. About 50% of the FAXes which I send via Voipo are not successful. There are about 6 free FAX providers which permit sending 2 FAXes per day. I use one of these for the few that I send, and use a free e-fax account for inbound FAXes. It doesn't appear that e-fax offers free accounts any more, so try K7.com.