My Fax dilemma solved with the ComSwitch 3.0

With the demise of Sunrocket I lost my fax number. I used Sunrocket's signature number (second number on primary line) with distinctive ring to route faxes to the VentaFax service on my Vista workstation. When I moved my main Sunrocket number to T-Mobile, I left out the signature number since T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home service does not offer a UMA Terminal Adapter to hook up wired phones and fax machines. This left me without an inbound fax solution.

My two options were to subscribe to a fax service or use my land line. Since I don't receive many faxes it did not make sense to pay a monthly subscription fee. I also did not want to dedicate my land line to incoming faxes since this is the number we usually give out as our home phone. I could purchase a second number for the land line and use distinctive ring but there again the additional cost was not justified. The solution was to find a reasonably priced fax switch. A fax switch listens to the traffic on the line without answering or taking it off hook. Newer fax machine emit CNG tones, these tones are detected by fax switches which automatically route the fax call to a connected fax machine or in my case a fax modem.

I found ComSwitch 3.0  from Command Communications, Inc. It has many more options than I need, including TeleZapper, but was the simplest and cheapest solution at $59.99. I received it late last week, installed and tested it over the weekend. I use the default settings and it works very well. When an incoming fax arrives it switches the call silently and the fax modem picks up before any phone rings. VentaFax then emails me the fax. If a fax call should come through on a regular phone you can easily reroute it to the fax machine/modem by pressing #11.

Comments

[Rudi Pittman]

You could have gone to k7.net (a free service) and gotten a phone # that would send voicemails and fax's to your email account. There are other services which also provide free fax to email.

[Stephen Skarlatos]

The problem with those services is that you are stuck with the area code they give you (K7.net 206 - Seattle). For my business I need a local fax number. It would be a great solution if I lived in Seattle.

If you don't care about the phone number, there is no doubt that these services are great.

[brian]

i got this and it worked great. but then i had comcast switch my phone over to all digital and it stopped working for my fax. i called the makers of comswitch and they had no fix for me. now i have a paper weight.

[internet fax services]

I don't think "K7.net" is a good choice. "ComSwitch 3.0" is way better then K7.

[fax online]

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