fax

[Laurister]

Trying to set up the fax on my HP Officejet 6700 Premium All-in-One.  My phone line is Verizon FIOS. There is and needs to be a land-line telephone on the same wall phone jack.  The 2-copper wire  phone cord provided by HP is not long enough to connect to wall, but is long enough to connect to the telephone.

I can get the machine to call (three different) known fax phone numbers, but the fax machines being contacted do not pick up.  

a) I am not at all sure I have everything configured correctly

b) I think I need to get one or two longer 2-copper-wire phone cords (do I? If so, where do I get them)?

c) I was told by HP support-which has so far ignored my first two questions, above, that my first problem is that I need to contact Verizon and ask them if my phone line can receive faxes, and that I need to ask them if my line is analog or digital.

d) contacted Verizon and was told my phone line CAN receive faxes, and that my phone line IS digital (duh).

e) I was then told by HP that I needed to ask Verizon to send me a "filter to convert my phone line from analog to digital."

f) Verizon said they 'don't have them because analog is going out."

g) Found one that looked viable called a "digital wall interface single channel" with this diagram on the internet:

http://www.telcom-data.com/Images/dwisdia.gif  but it is $225.00

h) HP said that can't be the right one--that I should be able to find at "any electronics store for $5 or $6."

i) contacted Best Buy and Radio Shack. Both said they had no idea what I was talking about and one said HP is throwing me a curve ball.

Help?

Laura

[X-23]

Hey @Laurister,

Welcome to the HP Support Forums!

I understand that you're experiencing issues when faxing over your Verizon FIOS phone line. I would like to assist you with this today. 

Now just so you are aware, faxing is old analog technology. Nowadays, phone companies, like your Verizon Fios service, offer only digital services. Faxing should work OK on this type of phone line but there is much more static noise and interference on these phone lines that cause interference when sending and receiving faxes. The transmission rate of the data over these lines is also much faster on digital lines than on analog and this faster transmission rate can also cause fax communication issues. 

According to Verizon, "All fax machines should work with FiOS Digital Voice, but you may have to check your fax machine's manual to ensure compatibility . . . " Source . On page 64 (68 of 224) of the HP Officejet User Guide it states that "HP printers are designed specifically for use with traditional analog phone services. If you are in a digital phone environment (such as DSL/ADSL, PBX, or ISDN), you might need to use digital-to-analog filters or converters when setting up the printer for faxing. . .  HP does not guarantee that the printer will be compatible with all digital
service lines or providers, in all digital environments, or with all digital-to-analog converters. It is always recommended that you discuss with the telephone company directly for the correct setup options based on their line services provided."  Source

With that being said, I am going to run you through the standard troubleshooting steps to eliminate as much interference on your digital phone line as possible.

How to Connect the Fax:

In order to eliminate as much static noise on your phone line as possible the following is the supported method of connecting your fax.

1. Plug your Fax machine directly into the wall jack using the 2-wire cable that came with your fax. Ensure the 2-wire fax cable is plugged into Line 1 on the back of your printer.

NOTE: It is crucial that you use the 2-wire cable as this will eliminate noise on your phone line. Standard 4 wire phone cables may work OK but the 2 additional wires can cause additional interference with your fax and can create an even bigger interference issue for you.

2. Plug your phone into 2-ext on the back of your printer. You may use the standard 4 wire phone cable for this.

NOTE: You need to avoid splitters or phone cable extenders as they create additional interference. Therefore, if you plug your phone directly into the rear of your printer into 2-ext, the printer will 'act' like a wall jack. 

3. Once your telephone is connected into 2-ext on the back of your printer lift the handset of your phone to ensure that you have a dial tone. If you have a dial tone your fax is now connected properly.

NOTE: The 'Digital wall interference single channel' that the HP agent was referring to is called a DSL filter and generally runs for $5.00. However, this DSL filter is meant for DSL (digital) phone lines. This filter clips into your fax cable and is used to eliminate static caused by digital phone lines. Even though this is meant for DSL phone lines, it may still be useful in a FIOS environment. We would not want to convert an analog line to digital, but we definitely want to alter your digital line to mimic an analog.

Once your fax machine is connected using the setup instructions above, please proceed to the 'configure' steps below to alter appropriate settings.

How to Configure Fax Settings for a Digital Line:

1. On the front panel of your printer select the right arrow until you see Setup (wrench)

2. Select the Setup option

3. Select Fax Setup

4. Select Advanced Fax Setup

5. Select Error Correction Mode (ECM) and turn that OFF

6. Next, Select Fax Speed and set that to Slow 9600

Once these settings have been adjusted please try sending a fax again. There may additional settings we need to alter for receiving faxes on your end. If you require assistance with this please let me know if you have any answering machine or voice mail service on your phone line.

Please respond to this post with the result of your troubleshooting. Good luck! 🙂

[SXHunter · Accepted solution]

A Couple of things here:

Verison should have Supplied you with DSL Filters for each of your Phones & Fax Machines.

But you Also should check your Fax Cable connected to your HP All-in-One Printer.

The Cable SHOULD have ONLY 2-Pins on Each End.

You Also need a 2-Way Phone Splitter. [It turns a Single Phone-Jack into 2]

You need to Install this into your Phone Jack on the Wall. This way, you can Connect BOTH your Phone and your HP All-in-One Printer Fax. And a 2-Pin Cable needs to run from that Splitter to your Fax. A typical 4-Pin might cause problems, and you only need a 2-Pin.

It is Possible that VIOS works much like AT&T Uverse does, which utilizes a 2-Line-per-Cable Interface, and can often Disable a Fax Machine, usually causing the Line to be either 'Busy' or 'Off the Hook'. This will cause a Busy Signal on both the Fax Machine and your Land-Line Phones.

Purchasing a 2-Pine [6P2C] Phone Cable into the Line-1 jack on the back of your HP All-in-One, with the Other End in a Splitter [So you have both Fax & Phone plugged in the Same Line].

I Hope this Helps!! :^)

[Laurister]

Thank you for responding. You are correct about everything. However, Verizon no longer supplies their customers with the DSL filters--their reason being "We consider the need for them obsolete."  And regarding the cable with 2 pins, could not find one long enough--those that HP makes are all only 10 feet, and there is no way to connect 2 of them together. 

Will have to wait until I move to another location at which I can try again with printer within 10' for the wall jack. 

Thanks very much for your time and help though. I hope this post will still be online for me to refer to at that time!

LAURA

[X-23]

Hello @Laurister,

Just to note, as I mentioned in my original post to you on January 19th, 2015 regarding this issue, "You need to avoid splitters or phone cable extenders as they create additional interference. Therefore, if you plug your phone directly into the rear of your printer into 2-ext, the printer will 'act' like a wall jack."

In this specific setup, a splitter would cause more harm than good. You simply use the 2-wire fax cable that came with your machine and plug that in from the printer (Line 1) to your wall jack or phone modem. Then you plug your phone (using a normal 4-wire telephone cable) into the rear of your printer in 2-EXT. This way the printer and phone will work together. You will still be able to use your phone as per normal.

Good luck going forward with this! 🙂

[5ilver5urfer]

Hello, Attaching a video which you might find it useful.