Faxing with Vonage and HP OfficeJet 6310

Posts: 111 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 26, 2008 Posts: 111

ok wrote:

There are two ways to handle fax in IP networks : Passthrough (use G711 - 64kbps) or Relay (T38). The fax problems can be resolved to large extent by using T38 or using some error correction/recover on IP network.

Thanks ok you're ok. Lol

<slaps self on wrist>

Yeah, I've been on the net. And when I learn something I bring it here and attempt to help others. I mean I DO try to not be a parasite and only come here to take away.

But if I can't come to a Vonage forum and learn about how to make Vonage work better, then where precisely do I go?

T38 sounds lovely. How do I get it and how does Vonage provide it for me? You left that part out. How do I avail myself of that option?

And speaking of modern fax machines with their high res and high speed and all that, I noticed that my machine gives its speed in Kbps, not baud, while Vonage uses the term baud (as in 9600 baud). They are not the same. See:http://www.privateline.com/PCS/dodd.pdf page 10 of 34 (actual page 12).

See what looking on the web got me? Now when Vonage says to set my machine to 9600 baud do they really mean Kbps? Mine doesn't show speed in baud, but rather Kbps. Does Vonage understand the difference?

In the end it's a pity that the technology made us go backward as pointed out before. Hook up your new-fangled machine to copper wire -- what is it, about 28 gauge or something? -- and you get all the benefits of the modern machine age. But hook it up to high-speed Internet and you gotta cripple your machine to get it to work.

Posts: 47 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jun 13, 2007 Posts: 47

Arthur_lw wrote:

T38 sounds lovely. How do I get it and how does Vonage provide it for me? You left that part out. How do I avail myself of that option?

You can try calling them or some vonage people on forum can answer this. I don't know of any technical reason as to why this should not be the default for carrying fax.

Arthur_lw wrote:

And speaking of modern fax machines with their high res and high speed and all that, I noticed that my machine gives its speed in Kbps, not baud, while Vonage uses the term baud (as in 9600 baud). They are not the same. See:http://www.privateline.com/PCS/dodd.pdf page 10 of 34 (actual page 12).

The terms are/can be used interchangeably. The Fax machine rate
(baud or kbps) refers to the number of bits of real data it can tranmit per second.

Regardless of the fax machine rate/type, a analog line alwasy results in 64kbps data rate. In case of voice this can be compressed to lower rate such as G726(32kbps), g729 (8kbps) etc..

In case of fax when passthrough is used, the rate is typically 64kbps (G711) . When it's T38, the date rate will be the actual fax machine date rate or baud 9600/12000/14400/33600 etc...Since T38 uses redundancy the actual bandwidth required is higher but still remains lower than passthrogh and much more reliable.

Arthur_lw wrote:

In the end it's a pity that the technology made us go backward as pointed out before. Hook up your new-fangled machine to copper wire -- what is it, about 28 gauge or something? -- and you get all the benefits of the modern machine age. But hook it up to high-speed Internet and you gotta cripple your machine to get it to work.

I think hooking a fax machines to ATA in the day and age of broadband and IP telephony is most frustrating. I think one should be able to buy a IPFAX machine which can sit on your LAN and works
reliably and allowing faxing/remoteprinting beyond what is possible today i.e. internet speeds/color etc...

Posts: 111 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 26, 2008 Posts: 111

MikeFarm wrote:

I've read many complaints/challenges with faxing and vonage. I tried both setting the fax to 9600bps (slowest it will go) and dialing the *99 before the number. Neither of which worked for outbound faxing. Please help, this may force me to rip out vonage...

Wow! We sure did engage in lots of technikul back and forth on this one. Eek

I can't quite put my finger on it, but it seems that there is some disagreement in these posts about the way VoIP handles faxing, and about its strengthes and weaknesses.

In the end, can we agree on the following?:

If I hook up my machine to a POTS line I can:

Leave it set on its highest speed and let the machine decide its transmission rate based on line conditions and the machine on the other end's ability to process its share.

Let my machine use it's ECM.

Not have to call Ma Bell's customer service or tech support to get my machine to work.

Prolly fax in color (though I never have met a company that had a color fax anyway).

And here is my frustration with this whole faxing via VoIP thing. I have no problems faxing if I use Ma's Internet, just not the other 'Net that us mere mortals have to use. I mean let's face it. She uses her Central offices, her microwave dishes, and her satellite uplinks and downlinks. She just does it better. Wink