Fax Modem for Optiplex 790 Desktop

Hi Mark,

Can you tell me what happened with the TrendNet one that you tried?

If I may...

Why bother with a fax/modem? There are lots of free online services that let you send and receive faxes. You email the doc to their site and it sends the fax to the number you specify.

Fax Better give you a toll-free fax number for free. People send their fax to that number and you get it as an email attachment.

Some even let you photograph a doc with your cell phone and they convert it to a pdf and forward it as a fax. (Resolution and image quality could be an issue here...)

Obviously, they all charge for upgraded levels of services, and there may be restrictions on the number of free pages per fax and number of free faxes per day. So be sure to read the fine print...

Now I'll :emotion-16: and let Osprey help you find a fax/modem card... 

I was able to get connected to the internet with the Trendnet USB fax/modem, but when I tried to fax using windows fax and scan, it was hit and miss.  Sometimes it would send, but most of the time it would come back saying something like "unexpected error".  And I was never successful at receiving a fax with it.  I've ordered a USR 5638 pci-e fax modem which several reviewers said worked with windows fax and scan in windows 7 64.  I'll let you know the results.  Thanks for your interest in my problem.

Mark

Rohe,

I didn't know about the free services.  I would be unable to use them as I send and receive faxes loaded with protected health information (pharmacy stuff).  Thanks for your suggestion.

Mark

Ok, let me know how the USR one works. Simply in terms of reliability, I think external machines, such as an AIO printer, do a better job than internal cards.

Ok, I received the USR 5638 pci-e fax modem and installed it and the driver.  I can fax out using it with no problem.  But I can't get the modem to answer all calls.  The modem will answer a phone call as long as it does not know it is a fax machine calling.  If I dial the modem from a fax machine and let the modem answer first, then hit the send button on the sending machine, I can receive the fax.  But if I scan the fax into the sending machine's memory (I'll call this a background job) and let the machine then dial the modem, the modem won't answer the call.  The only difference in the two methods is that the background job has that fax guard tone, that short beep about every three seconds, while the phone is ringing.  This tone identifies the call as a fax call.  Yet it seems to be inhibiting the modem from answering the call.  Without the fax guard tone, the modem answers.  With the fax guard tone, the modem will not answer.

I've been working with USR technical support via email.  Here is their last response.

"Dear Mark,

Thank you for choosing USRobotics.

The beep sound you mention is the fax guard tone which pretty much identifies the call as a fax call.

Based on all the details about the issue the modem does not seem to be defective. Modems don't go half bad, they either work or don't work. Since the the modem works when the fax is sent manually we beleive the root cause of the issue is something else.

From our perspective, the only thing we can offer is to exchange the product with another unit. Please be aware that we can't guarantee this will resolve the issue, but at least would allow us to isolate the problem a little more."

So I've got a  fax modem which will only answer a call if it knows it isn't being called by another fax machine.  

What decides whether the fax modem answers the phone?  Is it something on the card or is it the driver software?  What's listening to the phone line and decides it's time to pick up?  It seems that if it hears the fax tone, it decides it is not a call at all.

I guess I could let them replace the card, but likely it won't change the situation.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Mark

Answering Calls is a Setup String function.  On Really Old modems you could set this with a switch.

Echoing commands can confuse the console, so turn off command echoing.

The AT command is ATE0

The modem will answer an incoming call on the second ring using the command ATS0=2

AAA TEE SSS ZERO = TWO  that's not an Oh.

Then AT&W to save this to the modem.

If you totally hoze it up you can do AT&F to reset to factory defaults.

You use Hyper terminal in XP.  

In Windows 7 and Vista, you will no longer find the HyperTer minal program.

Original XP Hyper Terminal

You can get the original HyperTerminal in Windows XP, you can actually extract two files from your XP installation and copy them over to Windows 7 or Vista.

The two files you will need are hypertrm.dll and hypertrm.exe. Simply copy those files into any directory on your machine and it will work. You should be able to find hypertrm.exe in C:\Program Files\Windows NT and hypertrm.dll in C:\Windows\System32.

Now you've got me all excited and my hopes up (it doesn't take much) at the possibility of tweaking this thing and making it work.  But I have never messed with a modem before and have never used the application you mentioned above and don't really have a clue how it works.  At the risk of showing my ignorance of what is required to get this done, would it be as simple as going to control panel/phone and modem/modem tab/properties button/advanced tab and entering something into the "Extra Initialization Commands:" field?

Mark

Yes that could work also.   Just put the ATS0=2 in and then call it to see if it answers on the 2nd ring

hi