Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!spdcc!iecc!johnl
From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.fax
Subject: Re: Fax / telephone : Seperate lines ?
Summary: Use distinctive ringing
Message-ID: <1991May22.195640.8030@iecc.cambridge.ma.us>
Date: 22 May 91 19:56:40 GMT
References: <289@altos86.Altos.COM> <15091@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: I.E.C.C.
Lines: 32

In article <15091@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> wendt@parsons (Alan W) writes:
>In article <289@altos86.Altos.COM> ratan@altos86.UUCP (Ratan Tipirneni) writes:
>>do I have to get a separate line for the fax or can the same one that I use
>>for my telephone be used for the fax also? ...

>There are a number of fax/modem/voice switch boxes on the market.
>I think Heartland and Comb (mail order discount houses) have switchers
>for about $100. ... Black Box sells one for about $200 that has
>a recording to tell people to "punch 3 to talk to a person, or 2 for fax".

Yuck.  I get a lot of my faxes from unattended equipment that won't dial
any extra digits, in which case these extra-digit line splitters don't
work very well.  Also, as noted elsewhere, some fax machines don't send
the pilot tone that tells the listening splitters that it's a fax calling.

What I did was to order distinctive ringing, known around here as
RingMate, on my phone.  For $5/month, I get two new phone numbers that
makes a double or triple rather than single ring.  (One extra number is
only $3/month.)  I use an $80 Autoline Plus from ITS Communications in
Endicott NY which listens to the first ring cycle and connects the
appropriate device, a regular phone and answering machine for a single
ring, modem for a double ring, and fax for a triple ring.  It works very
reliably, and since the fax and voice have different phone numbers, there
is no need for a caller to dial extra digits or send funny tones.  An
added advantage is that it handles contention on outgoing calls as well.
If one device is using the line, neither of the others can butt in until
the first one hangs up.

-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869
johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {ima|spdcc|world}!iecc!johnl
Cheap oil is an oxymoron.