Re: [Thinkpad] [TP-almost on topic] Faxes

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006, David Ross wrote:

>> Without new hardware? By "receive the fax", do you mean route it to
>your
>> computer and make a file out of it? Do you have a fax program
>installed?
>
>Yes, that's what I mean. I figure that if I can get the fax contents I
>can let the sender and receiver know the mistake, and maybe avoid it in
>the future.
>
>I have several fax programs that have come with various modems over the
>years, including Winfax, and I have no trouble receiving faxes when I am
>set up to receive a fax, but as far as I can tell there's no way to have
>it ignore non-fax calls.
>
>If there is no software-only (or software+modem(s)) solution, I'd be
>willing to buy some hardware, if it would do the job and wasn't too
>pricey.
>
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David:

The problem with sorting calls into "voice" vs "fax" vs "data" is that
the **ONLY** way to know which calls are which is by answering the call
and listening for a fax negotiation warble vs a data modem warble vs
somebody saying "hello". By the time you've answered the call and made
the decision that it's a voice call, it's too late to let the call
continue to ring so that a live person (or answering / voice mail machine)
can pick up a receiver.

My only suggestion might be to have a program that looks at the Caller ID
information of each inbound call and look up the calling number in a local
database of known callers. If the calling number is noted as being a fax
caller, let the fax software answer the call. On the other hand, if the
calling number is noted as being a friend / family (or unknown) then let
the telephone continue to ring until it's answered or your answering
machine / voice mail take a message.

If you need more information on a Caller ID based solution, contact me
off list and I'll see if I can help.

-- 
David Goldman
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