faxing with magic jack

[jerryd1]

Hello, I need help setting up to send and receive faxes with a Verizen wireless card, Dell Studio, w/Vista. Thanks

[conniemadagain]

you can "search" that

[tony]

Hello, I need help setting up to send and receive faxes with a Verizen wireless card, Dell Studio, w/Vista. Thanks

What settings did you try and what results did you get? Lots of info on using MJ for faxing in these forums.

[Alpman]

I was never able to reliably fax using my Vista machine, evan after changing the baud rate to 9600 and turning off error correction on the fax machine. XP plays much nicer with mJ and faxing. My best solution has been with a dedicated thin client for my fax line, 90+% success rate.

[boar]

isnt faxing as simple as connecting the phone line to MJ and to the fax machine and then dial the number from the fax machine ??

[Nobody beats the Whiz!]

isnt faxing as simple as connecting the phone line to MJ and to the fax machine and then dial the number from the fax machine ??

Harness the power of deduction, or at least search.

Fax machines were designed for a constant circuit switched connection, long before the concept of VOIP was conceived. Therefore, it is not fond of the new technology and its habit of having bits of transmission arrive out of order, or late, or never.

As a result, faxing may not be as simple with a Magic Jack as you assume.

[boar]

when i dial the number in the fax machine and i click start, isn't the circuit open then ? the fax machine search for a dial tone, if one is found then it dials the number.

I have a fax machine, i should try it but i have no other number i can fax to..i mean none of the people i know owns a fax. My conception is simple, i should be able to send and receive faxes with a dial tone.

I should research of course..

[bitstopjoe]

free FAX test server from HP.
888-473-2963


Joe Sica

[Nobody beats the Whiz!]

when i dial the number in the fax machine and i click start, isn't the circuit open then ? the fax machine search for a dial tone, if one is found then it dials the number.

I have a fax machine, i should try it but i have no other number i can fax to..i mean none of the people i know owns a fax. My conception is simple, i should be able to send and receive faxes with a dial tone.

I should research of course..

I'm not saying it WON'T work. I'm merely explaining why it very well may not. The only way for you to fully understand, of course, is to do your own research. It's enough to know that fax technology was created long before VOIP technology, and neither looks out for the other.

It very well may work, and has.

You are not creating a direct "circuit" between your fax and the called fax, though you are creating a logical one. Your voice or fax, is broken up into many different packets and sent to the other side. Since they travel on the whimsical internet, each packet may take a different path than the other. Therefore, they may not arrive in order, and some packets may not arrive at all. Fax technology doesn't understand that reality, while VOIP does. For voice, our brains fill in the little missing packets, and you may not even notice a fraction of a second of missing sound. However, a fax machine notices, and it gets to'd.

[R0ss]

Well I finally did get one fax to go through. Other than the time of day the only thing differnt was I did not have a phone hooked up just the line in to the fax, maybe that made a difference who knows. My original attempt's were to my senators and Congressional in DC. i bet there is a lot of "static" on their lines right now so maybe that was the issue.
On another note there is an "add" on the softphone that states that the "air card" setting should not used for faxing. That wo lead one to beleive that faxing shold work with MJ other wise it wouldn't be necessary to tell folks not to use the air card setting? Any thoughts?

Ross

[Nobody beats the Whiz!]

Well I finally did get one fax to go through. Other than the time of day the only thing differnt was I did not have a phone hooked up just the line in to the fax, maybe that made a difference who knows. My original attempt's were to my senators and Congressional in DC. i bet there is a lot of "static" on their lines right now so maybe that was the issue.
On another note there is an "add" on the softphone that states that the "air card" setting should not used for faxing. That wo lead one to beleive that faxing shold work with MJ other wise it wouldn't be necessary to tell folks not to use the air card setting? Any thoughts?

Ross

My thoughts are that MJ officially does not support faxing. They say so in their FAQ. However, they don't stop you from trying. It works for some people, sometimes.

The "add" [sic] you mentioned, is just a tip to help out those who try.

[R0ss]

Well I finally did get one fax to go through. Other than the time of day the only thing differnt was I did not have a phone hooked up just the line in to the fax, maybe that made a difference who knows. My original attempt's were to my senators and Congressional in DC. i bet there is a lot of "static" on their lines right now so maybe that was the issue.
On another note there is an "add" on the softphone that states that the "air card" setting should not used for faxing. That wo lead one to beleive that faxing shold work with MJ other wise it wouldn't be necessary to tell folks not to use the air card setting? Any thoughts?

Ross

My thoughts are that MJ officially does not support faxing. They say so in their FAQ. However, they don't stop you from trying. It works for some people, sometimes.

The "add" [sic] you mentioned, is just a tip to help out those who try.

I hear what you are saying and understand why faxing ona voip device is iffy at best. I just figured with the no frills support etc why would MJ bother to provide a tip about faxing unless they were "unofficially" supporting subscribers using MJ for a fax line. Anyway I don't send many faxes from home so if I can get them through even if I have to try a couple of times I'll be Ok with it, but it sure would be nice if it was possible to improve the reliability of using a VOIP device for faxing.

Ross

[Nobody beats the Whiz!]

[
I hear what you are saying and understand why faxing ona voip device is iffy at best. I just figured with the no frills support etc why would MJ bother to provide a tip about faxing unless they were "unofficially" supporting subscribers using MJ for a fax line. Anyway I don't send many faxes from home so if I can get them through even if I have to try a couple of times I'll be Ok with it, but it sure would be nice if it was possible to improve the reliability of using a VOIP device for faxing.

Ross

It all comes down to the choice of codec, or protocol implemented for VOIP on the MJ. At least one other codec is available that supports faxing over VOIP. Some VOIP providers advertise compatibility with fax. NetTalk.com is one of them. I have one of their devices, but have never tried faxing with it.

However, as pointed out in other threads, your best bet for faxing, is to get a free account at one of the web fax sites. If you're willing to put up with the MJ's faxing finickiness, then that's okay, too.

[techm8]

I have no success sending or receiving faxes on my HP Photosmart C7280 even with error correction disabled and the speed dropped to 9600.

Can anyone recommend a good and reliable online fax service?

[satmaxx]

[quote="techm8"]I have no success sending or receiving faxes on my HP Photosmart C7280 even with error correction disabled and the speed dropped to 9600.

Can anyone recommend a good and reliable online fax service?[/quote]

using MaxEmail (dot com) for couple years now...very reliable....only vendor found offering an annual membership option for a low volume less frequent fax user...currently $24.95 / yr includes 100 inbound monthly and $0.05 per page outbound

[Mightybyte]

Try www.faxzero.com. They will allow you to send two free faxes of up to three pages each daily. If you need to send more than this, they will allow you to send a fax of up to 15 pages for $1.99. There are no other fees and no trial periods. The offer is good until they withdraw it. One tip on entering the confirmation code: Enter it in lower case.

I have used faxzero many times and it works great.

[crackerjack]

freepopfax.com...works best with .pdf format documents. Simple enter country, fax number, browse to your pdf file and go. You'll get confirmation the file was sent and notice when it fails.

Great ndeal, amazing price...FREE

For inbound free faxes there are many options but you can't go wrong with efax/jfax unless you really need a local number, or high volume. then use $4.95 /month unlimited service from packetel.com.

Ping me and we'll both get a free month when you sign up...

[szsjq]

Try www.faxzero.com. They will allow you to send two free faxes of up to three pages each daily. If you need to send more than this, they will allow you to send a fax of up to 15 pages for $1.99. There are no other fees and no trial periods. The offer is good until they withdraw it. One tip on entering the confirmation code: Enter it in lower case.

I have used faxzero many times and it works great.

www.GotFreeFax.com also allows user to send free fax online to the US and Canada. User can either upload a PDF/Word file or enter text to fax. It does NOT add Ads to user's fax and is suitable for faxing formal documents.

[brandylee0307]

I have no success sending or receiving faxes on my HP Photosmart C7280 even with error correction disabled and the speed dropped to 9600.

Can anyone recommend a good and reliable online fax service?

Before you totally give up on your fax machine, you might try checking this out:

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to write this because after searching the forum for how to fax with my new magic jack everyone tells you, " Its simple", "Just plug it in", "Voip faxing is no good", ect.... So after figuring it out I decided to write the correct steps. Why pay for a fax service when you can fax for free right from windows fax console like I have always done unlimited send and receive!

1. If you do not have windows fax console installed do that first. If you dont know how go here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306550
If you dont have you windows cd for the files that are needed go here and download it:
http://www.dlldump.com/
and complete the setup process: cover sheet and stuff. Oh yeah and just use the default modem.

2. Click on start, control panel, "phones and modems". Once the box pops up click on the "modems" tab. The default modem should already be highlighted if not highlight it and then click properties at the bottom.

3. Now for the missing step that nobody in form is telling peeps. When the new box pops up click on the modem tab. Change the "Maximum Port Speed" to 4800. Most important under "Dial Control" uncheck the box that says "Wait for dial tone."

4. Plug in for the Magic Jack, just incase you dont know ,should be into the modem and then the MJ. Yes it looks weird since my MJ usb port is right next the the modem on my laptop, so just get a short phone card and plug them in.

5. Go to your MJ software interface and click on "Menu" then click on "Switch to headset" if it does not say that but says switch to phone leave it alone.

6. Go to microsoft word or a pdf file and click print. Select the "fax" printer not your normal printer,and just follow the prompts that come after that,and if you have your speakers sound turned on you will hear a familiar sound. Test your fax here:
http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/fax- ... t2300.html

thanks!

The original thread can also be read here: http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/post53416.html#53416

It worked for me!