Fax setup help please

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 17, 2004 Posts: 21

I am such a newbie at Vonage that I don't even have my ATA yet! But I'd like to hit the ground running, if possible, when it arrives. I need to send faxes on my Vonage line. Will the fax setup be explained with the ATA instructions? Is this something that has been a challenge - such as the "which router and does it go in front of or behind" has been. Thanks in advance.

Posts: 104 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 104

Not much you should/could do until your terminal adapter arrives. For most people, it's amazingly simple -- pull it out of the box, follow the fold-out directions included and within about 2-3 minutes your line should be working.

Posts: 110 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 06, 2004 Posts: 110

OK... there are actually a couple of things you could do beforehand.

For me, none of these things were necessary; my fax machine worked right away with Vonage, but your mileage may vary.

First of all, it sounds like you've ordered only one Vonage line. So you'll need a phone splitter so that you can plug both your fax machine and your regular phone into the ATA. If you ordered a separate fax line, this isn't necessary, because the second port on your ATA will be activated.

In my case, the standard splitter / adapter that I had lying around didn't fit... it was pretty fat and when I put it into port 1 (typically for the line to your phone), it actually interfered with the power cord to the ATA. So... for me, I ended up just plugging the fax in and then plugging my phone into the fax machine.

In this type of setup, you'll probably want to set your fax machine to manual answer, so that it doesn't pick up your calls before they go to answering machine / voice mail.

You should also pull out / look up your fax machine manuals and determine what baud rate the fax uses... or, more importantly, if you can manually set the default rate lower (to, say, 9600 baud). Again, for me, this wasn't necessary, which is a good thing, because my HP All-in-One (HP3100), like many, only has one baud rate (14.4). Rates above that can be problematic as Voip will perform at least one analog --> digital --> analog conversion, with an algorithim optimized for voice quality, not analog modulation (modem sounds), and that can cause some disconnects when faxing, apparently.

Also... see if you can manually disable the error correction mode (I think it's called ECM) on your fax machine. Once again, not necessary for me, but this feature can also cause disconnects when a little noise or instability hits the line.

I know the feeling of wanting to get started right away... I was the same way while I waited the five days for my ATA to arrive.

Thanks for reading up first, as you clearly have, and welcome to Vonage!

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 17, 2004 Posts: 21

I guess the Vonage gods were smiling today. I opened box, hooked up according to foldout, plugged main phone line into fax machine, then connected talking phone as an extension from the fax machine. Thanks to forum folks who offered suggestions!

Looking forward to this new experience!