Distinctive ring and secondary line
It is recommended that you use a distinctive ring or a dedicated secondary line if you would like to use a fax machine in your household. A distinctive ring line will exist along with your main telephone line, but will have its own phone number, and can be set to ring in a distinctive pattern that your fax machine will recognize. This allows the machine to differentiate between voice calls for your phone and faxes that should go to the fax machine.
Alternatively, a secondary line is a separate phone line that is connected directly to the fax machine, and which relies on its own distinct phone number. This can be important for customers that use their fax machine frequently as a Secondary Line will remain available when your primary home phone line is in use.
For more information on how to set up a distinctive ring or secondary line please consult Shaw.ca or Contact Us
How to set up a fax machine
Follow these steps to set up your fax machine.
- Set up your Distinctive Ring/Secondary Line with a Shaw representative
- Connect a telephone cable from one of your available phone jacks on the wall to the port on the fax machine labelled "in" or "input"
- If your fax machine has a telephone connected to it you can check to see if you have a dial tone
- If you are using a Distinctive Ring/Secondary Line you must set the fax machine to recognize the distinctive ring pattern. The most common pattern is two short rings
For additional support in setting up your fax machine please consult the support documentation for your specific brand and model: Lexmark, Brother, HP, Panasonic, Sharp, Canon.
Troubleshooting: Unable to send or receive faxes
Try these troubleshooting tips if you are unable to send or receive faxes.
1. Check the physical line:
Ensure the line from the wall jack is plugged into the right port on the back of the fax machine. Most fax machines have 2 ports; 1 is for the line and the other is for an external handset. If you have an HP machine, you must use the HP supplied cord as this is proprietary of the machine as other telephone wires will not work
2. Check the answering mode on the machine:
The answering mode should be set on manual. If you are experiencing challenges, visit the fax machine manufacturer’s website and find the manual for assistance with the necessary steps.
3. Check the number of rings that fax is set to answer:
Please ensure that the number of rings is set lower than voicemail. Two or three rings will usually work.
4. Check Distinctive Ring Pattern:
If you are using a distinctive ring or a secondary line, please ensure that your fax has been set to recognize the pattern of that distinctive ring. The two short rings pattern will typically be used by default.
5. Check the baud rate (Advanced):
This issue lies with faxing software, as most fax machines do not have a setting to adjust the baud rate. This should be set to 14400 or 9600 kb/s.