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Screening for Fax Calls with Panther?
Peter Brodsky asks: "Panther advertises faxing as one of its cool, new features. If you're like me, and you have one land line, which you use for DSL and voice, you don't want to hook up a fax machine that will answer after X rings, because if after X rings it picks up and starts beeeep, beeep, bleeeeping at you, you cut yourself off from voice mail... which is programmed to pick up after Y rings. Is there a way to make your Panther box 'screen' for fax calls before it picks up?"
You can get some software to turn your mac into a voicemail server. Then you can screen it effectively. Otherwise you'll need to pickup a device that will screen the call and then direct it to the appropriate device.
It would probably be more cost effective to signup for that efax service where faxes come into your email box.
Basically, you'll end up wasting alot of time for a few buck a month.
(I haven't upgraded to Panther) Find out if the Fax recognizes a distinctive ring. If it does the use the distinctive ring number for your faxes.
Ross Winn "not just another ugly face..."
Well ... as I'm not sure if the Apple modem's support mutli-ring service ... you could always get a second phone number (typically $5/mo from the telco) which will come in multi-ring. There are devices to route calls based on ring (Radio Shack used to carry one, not sure anymore).
Now -- if you're smart you'll get a new number and make that your base number. Your home phone will be the multi-ring #. The benifit is that the multi-ring number is not listed or published. I did this for years (upon getting a new home number) to instantly do away with telemarketing calls. All sales people and stores get the base/fax/whatever number.
Today -- I still do the same except my base ISDN# is just always busy (unless I am expecting a fax). The second number is for voice. Other benefits include multi-line home number, always send the busy # out on CID and give that number to store clerks or use it for fax as needed -- including the fact that since it is a digital circuit (SBC now) it is automatically non-listed/published as well. Literally no telemarketing calls for years.
I know my parents still do the multi-ring setup with one device as the POP box. Multi-ring calls go out to the house line and straight rings are routed (silently) to the newly run fax line in the den. Telemarketing calls? Also -0-
But you could do it the "old fashioned" way, which is what I'm planning on doing. If somebody needs to send me a fax, they can call me first and tell me. Then, I'll let the computer answer it.
Unfortunately, Panther (with this feature) came out just _after_ I had finished the process of buying a home. (For anyone who's never gone through the process, there was a large amount of faxing to be done, between about 4 different parties.) It would have made some things much simpler, instead of my wife using the one at her job, and needing to hop down to the office 2 floors below her to receive an incoming fax.
If you just set your Mac running Panther to answer all your incoming calls with its FAX-modem, won't that have the effect of screening out FAX calls, along with bill-collectors, telemarketers, annoying family-members, etc.? ;>
Once again, you can find the answer to this question on MacOSXHints:
10.3: Enable Disctinctive Ring fax answering.
You and your damn facts have stopped this thread cold. I hope you're happy.
If you are using voice mail (phone co-provided, not a box at your house,) then you're pretty much out of luck. Because in order to detect a fax call from a voice call, you have to answer it. If you have a device (like one of those silly 'Catch-A-Call's,) pick up the line to detect what kind of call it is, then the phone company provided voice mail won't pick up.
If you use a physical answering machine in your home (digital or old-fashioned tape,) then you're in luck. You can set your fax machine to 'TAD'. (Or 'External Answer') This sets it to passively listen to the phone line, but not pick up the line ever. Then, if someone faxes in, and either you pick up and answer, or your answering machines picks up the fax machine will detect the incoming fax, and pick up. (That's how I have my multifunction machine set up.)
Unfortunately, I can't find such a 'TAD answer' setting in Panther. Panther only seems to support having itself answer after 'x' rings.
So, for having PANTHER do it, you're out of luck period. If you're using phone company voice mail, you're out of luck. If you're using an answering machine and a separate fax machine, use 'TAD'.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
If by 'Voice mail' you mean, "My phone company's voice mail service" then no, there is NO way for ANY home connected device to see if there's a fax machine on the other end of the line without actually answering the call - you have to use distinctive ring, or a seperate line.
If by 'Voice mail' you mean 'Answering machine on the same line' then any intelligent faxing application will listen to the line after it's been answered for the telltale beeps and take over if necessary. This means that if you or voice mail picks up, the fax machine should recognize the beeps. The answering machine may or may not record the conversation depending on how smart it is.
Your best bet is to use distinctive ring, OR use panther as your answering machine/fax machine, and it should take care of all of it for you.
-Adam
I was looking into a voicemail solution for OS X when my old answering machine finally gave out. I looked and figured that with the new phone number portability in the US I will simply move to a new provider and that voicemail solution should suffice.
But this question got me thinking. I would never need to use OS X as a voicemail/fax system if I move entirely to a cell phone, but it sure would be great if Apple could work with the cellphone providers to make my voicemail and faxes available from my broadband connected home computer. I could get faxes as a PDF and voicemail and an MP3. I do avoid listening to my voicemail on my cellphone because it is very awkward and difficult to hear. Apple should more closely integrate Apple Mail, iChat, and the Address Book with a cellphone service which would make fax and voicemails easily accessible from the desktop as a communications hub, and it could all be done over my broadband connection.
Brennan Stehling - http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/
just written up and posted:
http://hivelogic.com/macfax.php
basically, you get a distinctive ring tone from your phone company for the fax line, and the panther fax software will distinguish.
No I wasn't. The performa 5200 didn't have a Geoport included (see Apple's product description).
The sound was excellent, much better as anything recorded on tape or using a crapy digital encoding like in todays answering machines.
All in all I was very satisfied with it, and wouldn't have an air plane company totally crashed it after landing, I would still use it today as a very convenient answering machine/fax.
The money they gave me to compensate the dramatic lost of this BIG answering machine covered partly the cost of the G4 I have now. And whatever anyone thinks about OS X, if it's stable enough to run 24h/day 365days/year, it's then stable enough to be also an answering machine (as well as much more). I don't see why this should be worst than using a G4 to browse the web, listen to MP3's, were, for that use, a Quadra would be enough :)