The Stick has special features that make it work extremely well with either a PC FAX Card or a FAX machine. The feature that enables The Stick to route an incoming FAX call to your “FAX” type device is “FAX Tone Detection”.
What’s a “FAX Tone”?
In a nutshell, most FAX machines generate a tone when they are operated “automatically”. Automatic generally means you just drop the paper(s) to be faxed in the document carriage, the machine loads it, the desired phone number is entered, you hit the “START” button and you’re done.
The machine automatically dials the number and begins emitting the tone (commonly known as CNG or AUTO-FAX tone) to identify itself as a FAX-type device.
This tone is continuously transmitted until the called FAX machine answers the call and “handshakes” with the sending FAX.
With The Stick at the receiving end, the call is “answered” and the FAX Tone is detected. At that time the call is routed to the port labeled “FAX”. Hence, we suggest if you use either a FAX machine or PC FAX Card connect it to the port labeled “FAX”.
From The "......
.And Here’s Another Curve Ball” File.
Sometimes people pick up the handset on their FAX machine and dial
the phone number of the fax machine they want to connect with. By doing
this they have told their FAX machine they want to use it for voice purposes
only.
No problem for the FAX machine.....but now it will not transmit any AUTO-FAX tones after dialing a phone number. If The Stick is at the receiving end, it will answer the call and detect the absence of FAX tones, assume it is a voice call and route it to the VOICE 1 & 2 ports.
When you answer the phone, the person at the other end will say, “I am trying to send you a FAX!” Of course you can manually transfer the call to your FAX by pressing *2 (or another code if reprogrammed).
But before you do, we suggest you share the nugget of brilliant information found in the preceding paragraph with your misguided (no pun intended) caller and suggest the next time they fax you,try calling without lifting the FAX machine handset. It will make everything a whole lot easier at both ends of the conversation.
PC FAX Cards And The Meaning of Life.....
If a PC FAX Card is connected to The Stick at the port labeled “FAX”, you should have no operational problems when a call is routed. There are about a half-a-million different types of PC FAX Cards on the market today and each has its own operational idiosyncrasies.
If you do experience a problem, check the operations manual included with the PC FAX Card. If you can’t figure the problem out on your own - call our Tech Support gurus at 1-800-535-4651, they’re pretty sharp about stuff like that.