Cant fax with vonage!!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 26, 2008 Posts: 1

Cant fax !! at all!! it works sometimes ,, never consistent,, i then call there customer support who is in freakin India or Philippines
that person will run some tests,, and once again,, I CANT FAX !!!!!!!!!!!! don't use this co' if you intend to Fax!

Posts: 174 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jun 12, 2006 Posts: 174

And yet I fax with almost 100% success and have for years with Vonage, from both a PC / Modem using Winfax 8.x and a CXT softmodem built into my Gateway PC and from a stand-alone Samsung fax machine.

And I've never made a single adustment to any hardware or setting to make it happen -- closest I have come to an adjustment is that I always have a DSL filter attached to the line I am faxing on.

By the way, I don't use a Vonage fax line, as I typically send 2 or 3 faxes a month and I rarely receive faxes. This is just from my regular Vonage voice line.

Now, all of this is not to say Vonage is flawless when it comes to faxing -- I believe I am lucky with the simple success I have experienced. But it is also untrue to suggest that you can't use Vonage for faxing or you should avoid Vonage if you need to fax. There are a lot of tips to make it work better, many on this board, many more in other places.

For the POSSIBLE savings (obviously depends on your usage and your needs), it CAN be worth changing hardware (fax machine or fax modem) to find the one that works best. Point is - faxing and Vonage CAN work very reliabily!

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Nov 02, 2007 Posts: 63

Rather than a rant, why not give us some facts to work with. What make and model fax machine are you using? What indications do you get when you have a problem?
I fax all the time and haven't had a problem sending or receiving on an HP 7250.

Posts: 174 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 06, 2006 Posts: 174

I have two Vonage lines that I fax on, one is the 250 minute - outgoing fax line and one is the unlimited voice line. I keep the baud rate at no more than 9600 and ECM-off, as per Vonage's recommendation, and I have consistently good luck with my faxes.

Posts: 830 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 830

My fax is a POTS line, distintive ring, but when I need to send a LD fax, I simply switch to my Vonage voice line and have no problems, 9600 BPM, no ECM.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: May 02, 2008 Posts: 1

I nver had problems faxing with Vonage for over a year.. of course the problem occured just when they switched all of their support help to India. I have a Brother MFC-5860CN and rarely can I get a fax to go through on my dedicated Vonage fax line. When i have called Vonage for help I feel like I am beating my head against the wall.. Last technician I spoke to said that I should change my setting sso I could better recieve international faxes and that should solve my problems... Ugh I could scream. If my Vonage business phone wasn't already advertised so many places then I would be tempted to call it a day....
Any help would be appreciated. So I don't have to try sending a fax 5 plus times before it goes through....

Posts: 176 · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:04 pm Post subject:

I never have a problem faxing with my HP 7280 AIO Printer. I did set it to a slower speed, but it faxes from the glass or from the auto feed every time just fine. My old Sharp fax machine was a hit or miss, but the new HP is batting 1000.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 30, 2006 Posts: 6

I have intermittent faxing problems, too. Usually I can get one page faxed successfully, but almost never two pages.

I'm using a Conexant HSF V92 56k RTAD Speakerphone PCI modem on my Dell desktop. I'm using the MS Fax software that came with my machine. I read that I should slow down my modem to 9600 to improve faxing - it made it worse. I couldn't fax at all.

Fax speed is the only adjustment I can make with this modem. My Vonage line usually tests out at QoS above 90%, and ususally in the high 90s.

Any suggestions to improve my faxing reliability?

Thanks,

abqray

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 07, 2008 Posts: 2

I've been with Vonage about a year now...perhaps I won't be much longer if something can't be done about my service...loss of fax ability. I have a 2-line package, one of which is supposed to be a "dedicated fax line". Until early June 2008, all seemed to be working well. I was getting/sending few faxes...but I was able to send and receive. My HP 6110 all-in-one is 5 years old and all functions appear to be in good working order - color printing, scanning, etc. After several phone conversations with several Vonage people, the bottom line appears to be that my machine is broken - the fax modem & the dialer.

Thinking this might be possible, I called HP to see what my options were. I learned that there have been problems with Vonage + the 6110, there are some programing codes that need to be used. Well, I tried the suggested "fix" and still got nowhere. I ordered a new HP all-in-one, the 6310. I was advised that I might have to hunt around online to find out what the proper programing codes are for this unit as well. [I've tried today...no luck so far. Does anyone know them?]

I am hesitant now to set up the newly arrived HP 6310. Vonage will not admit to the possibility that their Motorola Router might be the culprit here.

I'll appreciate any help that can be offered. I may need to quit Vonage. While their costs are lower than a few of the others, the others are "local" and come around to assist you, plus the fax functions work! I NEED those fax functions!
Thanks for any help. JR

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 08, 2008 Posts: 13

What is your internet service?? Cable? DSL?

I really don't know the technical rationale, but I read elsewhere that the phone cord connecting your fax machine/modem to the Vonage interface should be a single line (2-wire) cord. Many cords have 4-wires, so you should check that.

I've only had Vonage for two weeks and have sent / received 3 or 4 faxes with no problems.

I have Comcast High Speed (>8mbps) and use an external Zoom Fax/Modem/Voice connected to my computer via serial port.

The Vonage Vportal interface is plugged into my Linksys router, and the router's QOS function is set to give the Vportal MAC address high priority when in use.