[SoHo] Sharing one line for fax and voice?

Yes, there are device sharing boxes that do what you describe. Essentially what they do is "answer" the ringing line and listen for incoming fax tones. They also generate a ringback tone so the caller continues to hear a ring and doesn't know the line has been "answered."

My experience has been that these boxes work well for a year or two and then their reliability drops off. I don't think they're that expensive (guess - under $50), so you're not replacing a $5K piece of equipment. Just don't plan on installing and having it work for decades.

Take care, Rich

God bless the USA

Thanks for the info. I'll google around to find sites that sell those thingies. Hopefully they also work in Europe.

A couple of name brands for them in the US are "The Stick" and "Comshare." I know I've seen other brands, but the names didn't stay with me.

I can't speak for how they would work in Europe; I have no European phone experience. But I would assume that European fax machines put out the same tones as the ones in the USA.

Take care, Rich

God bless the USA

Thx, found them:

OK. I was just concerned because I sort of remembered that fax machines in NA and Europe didn't work the same as to which party sent the fax tone first; I thought it was caller first in Europe, and callee first in NA, but maybe it's just old age ;-)

I'll take a look at whatever's available in the range $50-100.

Thank you.

Here (in the UK) I've got rid of the fax line and get incoming faxes delivered by e-mail. It costs me nothing.

But caller pays a little more to send the fax. I'm sure there must be something simiiar in the US?

There's a similar server in the US called efax or jfax. They have a free version where they assign you a phone number in a random part of the US, and limit to a dozen pages or so per month. For $10/mo you can choose your (presumably local) number and receive more pages.

I've never seen a fax sharing device that worked well, so I'd suggest getting a second VoIP line for the fax, something like Lingo Link which costs $7/mo with unlimited inbound calls.

Regards, John Levine, snipped-for-privacy@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be,

Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.

... and a similar thing in France :-) I wonder how good they are, though. Do they attach a bitmap of the fax? Otherwise, how well do they render if they are OCRed?

No, because the goal is to close the second phone line that we have, and is basically sitting there. Getting a VoIP line in addition to the one we already have wouldn't make sense.

I'll investigate the first option. Thanks!

Efax mails you a TIFF file with the bits of the fax, no postprocessing at all.

Another fairly low-cost possibility is getting a second number on the VoIP line with a different ring pattern, then getting a box called a ring leader to separate the calls. This is much more reliable than a fax switch because the box doesn't answer the phone, just listens to the first ring cycle and connects it to the device that will really answer. For that matter, a lot of fax machines have an option only to answer when they hear the ring pattern of a second number, so you don't even need the ring leader, just put the fax and a normal phone on the TA. I did that on a POTS line for years, worked great and a second number is pretty cheap from most providers.

R's, John

Good. I'll check what fax service is available here.

Even better :-) I'll look into this as well. Thx!