How to Hook Up Your Fax to Your Computer

Connecting a fax machine to your computer is as easy as setting up your computer or hooking up a telephone. You can connect the machines in a few, short steps Many printers now contain a printer, scanner and fax all-in-one, making the setup very easy. If you are purchasing a new fax machine, you may want to consider an all-in-one.

Instructions

1. Turn on both the computer and fax machine.

2. Connect a telephone cable to your telephone wall jack and bring the cable to the fax machine.

3. Connect the telephone cable from the wall jack to the fax machine using the telephone jack that may be labeled "T, tel" or "line 1."

4. Locate the telephone modem line on your computer. On many computers, the modem will be on the back of the computer with the power source and other ports. On some laptops, the modem line may be on the side.

5. Connect one end of the second telephone cable to the modem line on the computer and the other end to the second jack on the back of your fax machine. The second jack should be next to or near the jack you used to connect the fax to the telephone line.

Tips & Warnings

• If you purchase an "all-in-one" instead of a fax machine, follow the instructions for that model, which may be different from hooking up a simple fax machine. Connectivity for all three functions will come through a USB cable.

• Some computers may require you to re-boot for the computer to recognize the newly connected machine.

• If you are using one telephone line for both telephone and fax, incoming callers will get a busy signal while you are faxing.

References

• Using Microsoft with a fax machine
• Connecting with a Mac