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fax and distictive ring answering

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 8:23 am
by mrdunn
I hooked my Ooma up yesterday, and have not decided if I will keep my landline. I have a fax machine that answers when it gets a distinctive ring (3 short rings in a row). Since it is necessary to hook the fax to the hub, if I get the premier with two lines, and have the second line have a distinctive ring, will the fax answer? I want to keep my primary phone number, so it cannot have a distinctive ring for the fax.

This forum is great! I would have never bought an Ooma without reading through many of the discussions. Thanks.

Re: fax and distictive ring answering

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:29 am
by bw1
I haven't tried it. But it looks like you could set up your second number with distinctive ring and have the fax answer. See here: http://forums.ooma.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... ive#p10292

Here's another that may not have worked: http://forums.ooma.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... ive#p10090

And another that worked: http://forums.ooma.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... istinctive

So I guess try it out and let us know.

Re: fax and distictive ring answering

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:23 am
by mrdunn
I did what was recommended, using a Brother MFC-8640N, with distinctive ring on line 2. I am hooked up with Modem>Router>ooma hub>MFC-8640N. I sent a fax long distance, and received a fax long distance from a fax back service. Did not change anything on the hub, and my MFC does not allow me to change the Baud rate- it is "automatic". At least I cannot find a way to change it. Everything seemed to work just fine, but I am still connected to the landline. If I give up my landline, will in still work?

By the way, am I in the correct forum?

Re: fax and distictive ring answering

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:30 am
by niknak
Sure this is the right forum for fax installations...

It sounds like all is ok since you sent a fax long distance and you used ooma to connect the call. Also incoming the fax worked as expected while connected to the ooma line.

If you take the landline out of the picture, it shouldn't change anything

Re: fax and distictive ring answering

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:14 am
by southsound
mrdunn wrote:My MFC does not allow me to change the Baud rate- it is "automatic". At least I cannot find a way to change it.
I have two Brother MFC's so I thought I'd investigate if there was a setting. On both there is, but it is hidden and and poorly labeled. On both it is part of the fax setup routine. The feature is called COMPATIBILITY and may be a submenu of settings/fax/miscellaneous. The mode you want is BASIC (9600 bps). Instructions for this option may be under troubleshooting or telephone line interference.

As to the test from long distance, did the calling fax use your landline number or your temporary ooma number? If it used your landline then the test would have gone through the hub unmodified and may not be a valuable test of fax reception.

Re: fax and distictive ring answering

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 9:18 am
by mrdunn
I had the faxes call the ooma temporary number, and I sent the faxes long distance, so I presume it went over the ooma line. I don't know how to send the faxes on the temporary number, since it is connected to the hub. My MFC does not have such an option, but it seems to work ok, so I presume it "knows" how to drop to the correct speed??? Thanks for the help.

Re: fax and distictive ring answering

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:57 pm
by bw1
You should be able to tell whether the faxes went out using Ooma by checking the Ooma call logs.