Not receiving faxes from all places

[mbs]

Hi, since towards the end of last year we are having problems receiving faxes from some companies.  We are using a Faxphone L100.  The canon test fax back number works fine.   Faxes come in from most companies, but there are some that just will not get received on our fax.   VERY frustrating.  And its consistent.   They can resend forever and it will not receive.   What happens is the phone rings twice and the processing/data light blinks.  The phone then rings again and after about 5 rings it clicks and seems to be receiving.  The display shows receiving.   After about 1 minute it clicks again and no longer shows receiving or processing.  No error indication, nothing logged.  I tried setting the receive speed lower, call support and they had me change a few things like ecm to off, but still fails.  Anyone seen anything like this or have any pd suggestions?  I tried to get someone from the last companies IT dept to work with me, but they passed 😉  Thanks!!!  Mike

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

This could have to do with the phone service you have the device connected to.  We have may fax machines connected to MiTel.  We can usually receive about 98% of faxes from other organizations.  Every once in while they fail with some sort of communication issue. These are usually on the digital lines.  The devices connected to analog lines are the most reliable. 

Online fax services are also popular, but these too don't work with every device.          

[mbs]

Thanks Rick.  The thing that has me is it only started recently and only from a few organizations.  And its a hard fail from them. No amount of resending gets thru. I think I'd rather throw out the machine than call Optimum 😉 i swapped out the old phone cables and dsl filter.  Unfortunately I can get anyone from IT in the failing orgs to talk to me..  Banks and all... And they won't all send via email!   I have to see if I can run a new line from the basement to the fax.  Thanks for the thoughts!! Mike 

[Hector]

Hello Mbs, 

If it is only an issue with certain senders and you are a digital phone service, you can also try power cycling the modem that is providing the phone service. Once the connection is back up, you can try receiving again to see if the fax machine starts to receive the faxes or if you get more information from the incoming faxes like an error report. If that fails, you can also try manually receiving the faxes instead to see if it responds.

[mbs]

Thanks Hector!   Good thoughts.  Power cycling the modem is a good idea.   What I have done so far is to move the machine onto another physical phone line since this is an old office with old wiring.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to get someone from the sending side to help me do problem determination.   So not a lot of testing I'm afraid.  On this new line I did get one printed failure msg which I never got on the old line.   So if I get a problem with another sending company I can try something else.   This line has a funky old device that allows us to share the line between voice and fax.  It clearly is still working (to an extent) since I hear the fax machine attempting to receive.  But I still wonder if that box could be getting flaky...  I may try replacing it with a newer device (The Stick).