Strange Vonage Fax weirdness.

March 31, 2009 11:29 AM

Vonage Fax Weirdness. My fax machine doesn't get a dial tone (and doesn't work) on it's dedicated line, but does on a regular landline. A phone, however, does get a dial tone on the dedicated fax line.

I've done all the basic hardware diagnostics - checked all cables, tried different types of cable (two pin, four pin and combinations of the two). I've checked to make sure they are all plugged in appropriately. Rebooted at just about every step. Vonage sent me a new box, no good. When the problem first started I resorted to factory settings on the Fax. I've spent hours with their advanced Tech support people, and while helpful, they've eventually been stumped by the problem. I've googled, and checked on forums, but haven't come across my exact problem, though I've tried some of the solutions to other people's problems.

Anything I've overlooked? Thanks folks.

posted by Nick Verstayne to Technology (7 answers total)

You need to be using a two-wire phone cord, not the standard four-wire. This is easy to test: Do you have a spare phone cord around? Carefully cut into it and cut the two outer wires, but leave the two inner wires intact. Plug it in and see what happens.

(This caused me an unbelievable amount of frustration when I got my Vonage fax line...)
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:19 PM on March 31, 2009

Awww, crap, I'm sorry, I somehow overlooked your first sentence in the paragraph!
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:20 PM on March 31, 2009

Actually, give my suggestion a try anyway - use a four-wire, but cut it down to a two-wire. It's worth a try!
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:21 PM on March 31, 2009

Response by poster: I'll certainly try that, what the heck, it's worth a try as you say. That's about the only wire configuration I've not done!
posted by Nick Verstayne at 1:24 PM on March 31, 2009

When you say "Vonage", do you mean VOIP?

If the line is VOIP and not POTS (plain old telephone system) you're likely to have problems with any fax or modem. The compression and signal processing techniques used on VOIP are the enemy of analog devices. It's possible to get some analog devices to transmit over some VOIP lines under some circumstances, but it's spotty. You might try calling Vonage, and asking them if they can make any configuration changes to the line to make it more fax friendly. Browse some of these Google results for more info.

And, after the troubleshooting you've already done, you should call the phone company for a line check even if this isn't a VOIP line.
posted by paulg at 4:36 PM on March 31, 2009

But it does look like Vonage offers fax lines, so maybe I'm overstating the VOIP/analog problems. Sorry. Probably you've already seen it, but this Vonage support page mentions a "phone adapter" of some kind, stepping the fax data rate down to 9600kbps, and turning off ECM (error correction mode) as trouble shooting steps.
posted by paulg at 4:45 PM on March 31, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks paulg. It is VOIP (I thought that was Vonage's signature service, so presumed everyone would know what I meant, obviously I was being too US-centric on that - my bad). As I mentioned in the second half of the question, I've spent hours with their Tech support folks, to no avail, and have confirmed that the regular phone lines are working fine - even with the fax machine. I'll have a look at your suggestions in your second comment, but I'm pretty sure they are different lingo to what I have already tried (but not properly described here). Thanks for the help - I appreciate it.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 8:31 PM on March 31, 2009