Fax and answerphone "busy" indication

[oilman]

I have a fax m/c connected to an answer machine. The fax is set to TAD to work with the answer m/c. When a call comes in, the answer M/C takes the call and if the call is from a fax m/c, most of the faxes get printed.

Some of the incoming faxes don't get through, and people complain they can't send faxes. I have tried to send a fax using an internet connection, and I get the message that the fax can't be sent as the fax is busy.

The fax is a Brother 8070P and the phone is a BT On-Air 2250 (or very similar)

The fax m/c is set to auto detect faxes.
Any ideas?

 

[Igorian]

Hi Oilman

Can you tell me the following

1) How many devices do you have connected to the same phone line?(Phones, faxes, PC modems etc). Note their REN values.

2) Do you have ADSL on the same line?

3) Have you asked BT (or your provider) to do a line check? Noise can affect the call detection.

4) What software are you using to send a fax via the internet? Are you using the same fax or a PC modem or Broadband?

You could try the following to test compatibility between fax and answer machine:

Try temporarily removing the answer machine from the loop if possible (if you can divert calls to mobile or use BT answer service for a while).

Remove fax and replace answer machine. repeat tests.

If both work ok independently, possibilities include line noise, REN too high, Bad ADSL filters (if using ADSL), kit is incompatible.

Seeya soon in plumbing.

 

[oilman]

1) How many devices do you have connected to the same phone line?(Phones, faxes, PC modems etc). Note their REN values.

Fax and answer machine only.

2) Do you have ADSL on the same line?

No.

3) Have you asked BT (or your provider) to do a line check? Noise can affect the call detection.

Fax detection problem only occurs with some senders, other people are able to send faxes and the answermachine will answer, and the fax will detect the tones and pick-up without any problem.

4) What software are you using to send a fax via the internet? Are you using the same fax or a PC modem or Broadband?

The fax was sent from a browser using this

The problem seems to occur only with some sending fax machines that are a bit quick to give upwhen they find a voice on the line.

 

[Igorian]

Hi again

I've managed to have a look at the manual for the fax. I guess you have read it too, but I thought I would highlight a couple of points just in case:

1) How many rings have you set the answer machine to? 1 or 2 is best, 4 or more is too many as there may not be enough time for the fax to recognise the calling tones.

2) The sender is manually dialling when sending a fax. Sometimes, the senders fax will not send a fax calling tone in this case as it expects a fax to answer. As it is your answer machine that is controlling the answering, the fax is lost. In this case, the sender needs to key the fax activation code (*51) when the answer machine answers.

3) Leave a 5 second gap at the start of your OGM.

4) Call an engineer

 

[oilman]

Tried all those except the 2 rings. If it's that few, I won't be able to get the phone before the TAD does.

I've spoken to Brother tech support, they're having to call in the heavies, so I'll see what happens.

There must be thousands of these setups round the country, and mine won't be the only problem one.

 

[Igorian]

Good luck, but don't hold your breath...

 

[Igorian]

Of course, you could dispence wth both your answer machine and fax and get a copy of Call Attendant Pro from Objectworld. This will turn your PC and TAPI modem into a fax/voice answer service.