How to Make a Fax Machine Work With Internet Telephone

Internet Telephones use a lossy compression algorithm that can complicate sending faxes.

Internet telephony is a communication protocol that uses compressed packets of data to represent voice communication. Data is collected from the speaker, converted into a compressed algorithm and then transmitted over the Internet to the receiver, where it is decompressed and played back. A fax machine, on the other hand, requires a continuous stream of sound and will hang up if it does not get one. This means making a fax machine work with Internet telephone systems problematic.

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Instructions

- 1
  
  Connect your fax machine so it transmits and receives data through your VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) connection. Access your fax machine's settings menu and lower the machine's baud rate to as low as possible. Transmit at 9600 bps at most. This is essential, as the baud rate determines the speed at which data is transmitted. Fax transmission must be low to overcome the “lossyness” of VoIP codecs.
- 2
  
  Turn off your fax machine's error correction system. This prevents excess data being transmitted and requires the receiving fax machine to accept the data it receives “as is” without attempting to over-process it. Access your VoIP connection's settings (consult the help file for your particular system for details on how to do this) and switch your VoIP codec to the uncompressed G711 protocol. This avoids important signal data being lost in compression or transmission.
- 3
  
  Send a test fax across your new connection. This can be a blank document, a test sheet or simply a request for a response. Get a test fax sent back to you and test your fax machine's ability to receive data. If either test fax does not come through correctly, test your connection to VoIP and try lowering your baud rate a little further.

Tips & Warnings

Hewlett Packard maintains a test faxing service. If you dial 888-473-2963 and send a blank fax through, the HP service will receive your fax and then fax you back within five minutes. This will allow you to test both sending and receiving faxes without the need to own two fax machines on two separate telephone lines or bothering a friend.
Not all fax machines can handle Voice over Internet Protocol and some cannot even be connected to the system for faxing in the first place. If this is the case, you will need to consider other options; such as signing up for an Internet faxing service or scanning documents and emailing them instead.

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How to Make a Fax Machine Work With Internet Telephone

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