# fax help



## frmach (May 15, 2008)

I need help with a HP officejet v40xi fax and a Scientific Atlanta DPX2203c
Cable modem. Telephone and puter work well. When I try to hook up the fax it says that the phone is off hook. Time Warner says that they don't support fax
but think it should work. Previous owner of house had same setup except for the fax machine. no problem.


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## johnhook (Apr 23, 2008)

frmach,

How are you connecting the FAX machine to the Scientific Atlanta DPX2203c
Cable modem? There are two telephone ports on that modem. If you're only subscribing to 1 line, then only the LINE 1 telephone jack will work. Try directly connecting the LINE jack on your FAX machine to the LINE 1 phone jack on your cable modem. Try sending a fax. If this works - try recieving a fax. Again - do both of these tests with ONLY the fax TEL jack connected to LINE1 of your cable modem's phone jack.

If this doesn't work - let me know. If it does work, then you may have something connected incorrectly between your fax machine, telephone and cable modem. There also might be settings on the fax device that need to be altered - like auto-answer, number of rings to answer on, detect dialtone, etc.

Try that first test and report back.

- John


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## frmach (May 15, 2008)

I have connected direct to line 1 on the modem. It still says phone off hook.
Phone works well, different impedance between phone and fax machine???
thanks frmach


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

That's pretty odd, I've sent FAX with both my Vonage account and now the ViaTalk account I have, they used different adapters and three different FAX machines have all worked just fine.


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## johnhook (Apr 23, 2008)

frmach,

Make sure you're plugging the telephone cord into the LINE jack on the fax machine. Try a different telephone cord. Look at the settings on your fax device - see if there's a detect dialtone setting. Sometimes the stutter dialtone indicating voicemail messages can confuse the fax machine when it picks up the line. Plug an analog phone into the "TEL" jack on the fax machine and make sure you get dialtone when the fax machine is not in use.

- John


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## frmach (May 15, 2008)

Have tried all of those things. With Fax machine turned off I get the 
stutter tone when I plug into fax machine. Something about the input of the fax makes phone line think that it is off hook. No difference if fax is powered up or not.


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## johnhook (Apr 23, 2008)

frmach,

I'm pretty sure that the problem with sending faxes is related to that "stutter" dialtone - which indicates you have voicemail. You can check your voicemail and eliminate this stutter dial tone -or- you can try inserting pauses BEFORE the fax number you're dialing. On this unit, the pause it the '-' (dash or minus sign). When sending a fax, insert a couple of '-' (pause) characters BEFORE the number. This should force the HP Fax to wait a few seconds before detecting a dialtone - which should bypass the "stutter" tone that is likely confusing the fax into thinking there is not valid dial tone.

I use Vonage here over Comcast and have a dedicated Fax line/machine. I have NO problems with this. I did however have to disable the voicemail feature on my dedicated Vonage fax line.

Newer fax machines can handle these strange stutter dialtones - but that HP all-in-one is fairly old and doesn't have this feature.

I think we can make this work. Try checking your voicemail messages or adding the -- pauses in front of the fax number. Let me know if this works.

- John


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## frmach (May 15, 2008)

John
I can not get far enough to even try to send a fax. I do not have voicemail. something about the fax machine makes the phone think that it is off hook, whether fax mach has power on or off.
Frank


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## frmach (May 15, 2008)

Thanks guys
The problem was using a 4 wire cord between the modem and the fax machine. Using a 2 wire cord from modem to fax and 4 wire elsewhere everything works fine.
Thanks for the help
Frank


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

That's interesting, my new HP multi-function came with a 2 wire cord and I needed a longer one, so I used a 4 wire one. My FAX got very upset about the cord too, I had to go back to a 2 wire connection. 

Why the idiots that designed the phone connection didn't simply ignore the other two wires *totally *escapes me! :4-dontkno


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