I think we’ve all been down this road a time or two before.
I have one phone line coming into the house. I REALLY don’t want to add another.
That line picks up the “house” phone and answering machine.
Is there any really reliable way to get the ans. machine to play nice with a fax?
I have an all in one in the form of a HP Officejet and have never been able to get it to work correctly even as a stand alone on it’s own line.
Any recommendations for reasonable (cheap) priced fax machines? Plain paper please.
Thanks
Replies
I have a Panasonic- plain paper copier/fax/answering/speed dial that I have been using for 15 yrs. It uses a wide roll print film that is not cheap but lasts a long time (several years). They had good customer support for set-up issues.
Can't answer this for you 'cause I gave up on it!
This is what I did. I canceled the extra line and picked up an Internet fax service.
With this I get to print as many copy's of the fax I need, ink is never a problem, if the fax machine failed to print or messed up the paper, I'm covered, I can pick up the fax anywhere I can get email.
Cost is less than $5 a month. (If I refer you we get a free month each)
I think this works out cheaper than having my fax machine hooked up.
Get a distinctive ring number from your phone company. It gives you two incoming numbers but one phone line. Costs me $2.
The fax machine can be set up to recognize distinctive ring, so can many phones/answering machines.
My phone passes the distinctive ring signal right to the fax and never rings. The "dumb" wall phone rings.
My Canon all in one is configurable to work with a single number. I think it answers and checks for the fax handshake. If there is no data signal, it passes to the answer machine. Right now, my phone handles the switching.
I have always had either two distinct lines or distinctive ring. Life is much easier.
If you want a new fax, the only suggestion I have is laser. You can get one for less than $100.
Eric -
About a year ago I was faced with buying a new fax machine. I opted to switch to an online fax system. Here's what I use:
http://www.faxpipe.com/
There are others that are about the same. I pay $4/month and I get a separate toll free fax line for that. I think I get 25 pages for that. What ever the limit is, I've haven't exceeded it yet. I think it's a dime a page if I do.
I now send and receive faxes as emails. I probably save half that $4 a month on paper and ink and the readibility is vastly improved. I also found that I had to scan a lot of the faxes I rec'd so I could save them in pdf. Now, that's the way I receive them, so I don't have to print them very often. I won't go back to a conventional fax machine and it solved the phone line problem.
http://www.quittintime.com/ View Image
There are machines that I've used in the past with the answering machine as part of the fax machine.
But you have aprox the same machine I have now and it doesn't do that.
I think I once read that if you buy a separate ring tone _ an added # at maybe $3.00 a month on the same line like we used to have for the kids - that the different machines can be set to recognize that double ring or whatever to answer separately.
We have gotten to where we rarely need incoming fax anymore - mostly our faxing is outgoing.
If I go to a high speed sat for the PC ( shares same# as fax line) I would cancel the fax line and get an online digital fax that comes to me as email.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
wow and well, that was fast! Five good responses in the time it took me to read and write a responce and take a phone call while turning the chicken in the fry pan!
I'm a multifunction machine too!
;)
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
pretty sure I have several rolls of thermal fax paper for free to anyone who wants to pay the shipping on them - from a fax machine I will never use again
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
11 am - 1 pm seems to be sweet spot here often.
I get good answers with out all the interference.
Course, I'd rather be working...................
I have a fairly cheap Brother MFC 640cw all in one.
Just followed the set up instrustions and it's worked fine from day one.
the main phone still rings ... so if U pick up U gotta say Call Back ...
but other than that ... works great.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
I have a cheap HP officejetv40 and an old,seperate uniden answering machine on the same line.
works fine IF
I never actually answer the phone.
the answering machine will answer--detect an incoming fax and switch over to the fax.
I get maybe 4 or 5 faxes a week and it works fine---but I repeat- I NEVER answer a ringing phone directly( unless I was expecting a specific incoming call at a specific time)
Stephen