How do you set up a fax on an "all in one" printer? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Price]

I'm going to be purchasing an HP 7410 all-in-one printer for my home office. Do I have to get a new number for the fax part of this machine? I've never had a home fax machine before so I'm not sure how this should work. Thanks in advance.

Brian

 

[Michael Reuben]

All fax machines (whether fax only or combo) can share an existing telephone line. The question is one of convenience. With a dedicated line, you don't have to worry about differentiating between fax and voice calls, and you don't have to give up your voice line whenever you're sending or receiving faxes. A lot depends on how much fax activity you're expecting.

So you don't need a second line (but you may want one!).

M.

 

[Brian Price]

Is it possible to use a broadband connection as a "fax number"? I know someone who can get things faxed to his pc but I'm not sure how that works?

 

[Michael Reuben]

All the systems I know of that involve receiving faxes on PCs use a traditional phone line. It wouldn't surprise me if there's some sort of broadband option, but if so I'm not familiar with it.

M.

 

[SethH]

You can RECIEVE faxes using a broadband connection. You usually have to pay for the service though. Basically what happens is the fax is sent to some number that you sign up for at a website and that site converts the faxes into PDF's and emails them to you.

The only way to send a fax using broadband would be to get a VoIP service -- at least I'm pretty sure that would work (most offer a free second line or at least a very cheap second line).

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

You need to check exactly how your "all-in-one" handles faxes. (Some of them do not have phone line inputs and don't actually receive faxes on the scanner/printer, but use the PCs modem to receive the fax as a graphic file and then the PC outputs the file to the "all-in-one". Even combos that have phone line inputs may allow you to handle faxes this way as an option.) There are external devices that will intercept incoming phone calls and route data to the computer's modem, faxes to the fax machine and voice calls to the phone and/or answering machine. So that's one way to deal with it without getting a dedicated line for the fax. There would be no advantage to using a broadband connection like DSL or a cable modem for something like this as the speed of a fax transmission is determined by the slowest device in the exchange - and either the sending machine or the receiving one is going to run a lot slower than broadband.

Mostly it depends on how you're going to use the device. If you plan to either send or receive a lot of faxes when the computer is off, get a model with a phone line input. If your computer is on all the time you don't need to worry about that. If you're going to receive a lot of faxes during all hours and don't want your phone line tied up, get a second line. But if you're going to be a fairly light user and just want to route the faxes to the right device, consider one of the routing boxes mentioned above. If you're using your PC to receive voice, data and fax calls (with voice mail software) you can do what I did for a few years and get "personal ring" or "ring master" or whatever your phone company calls the service that gives you up to three "phone numbers" all of which ring to your single line. I used to have a "fax number", a "modem number" and my actual voice number and just told the software which was which. The PC would pick up calls on the "fax" number and save the incomimg image to the fax folder (or immediately print it to my laser printer depending on how I had things set up.) I would imagine all-in-ones can do the same trick, given how sophisticated things are getting. I think the "distinctive ring" service cost me about $3 a month in those days. (It would be free as part of my current package now, but I don't need it and don't use it.)

Regards,

Joe