How to distinguish incoming faxes from external numbers

October 12, 2005 2:59 AM

Say I've got 10 phone numbers going to a single fax modem... is there any way for fax software to distinguish these incoming faxes?

I've tried searching google but I don't really know what the search terms would be.

Is there perhaps a phone service that makes a different ring so that software can distinguish incoming calls, or something prepended to the call to say the external phone number?

I'm asking because some fax software has ways of emailing pdfs, and based on the external number I'd like to email the fax to different addresses.

Any ideas?

posted by holloway to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: I think your search term is "distinctive ring." For instance, you might find this to be a starting point.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:39 AM on October 12, 2005

use a 3rd party service like ringcentral.com. It might be cheaper and easier to scale.
posted by phildog at 6:28 AM on October 12, 2005

This fax software appears to support the distinctive ring feature...it only goes up to 4 different rings, however.
posted by bachelor#3 at 9:31 AM on October 12, 2005

There are only 4 distinctive rings available from bell, so that's the best you'll get, unless you can somehow convince bell to provide you some sort of special service (good luck).

You *might* get that sort of special service if you were to convert to switched-56 (digital service, half-ISDN). But that will cost you as much as separating those 10 numbers to separate lines.
posted by shepd at 1:12 PM on October 12, 2005

Response by poster: Hmm... distinctive ring eh? That's set me on the right path, thanks.

It looks like Telecom NZ kind of have it under what they call Faxability (natch) but it doesn't seem to support 4 numbers, let alone more. Well I'll ask some Telecom mates about it now that I know what I'm asking for but it looks like I'm just going to have to throw money at the problem, Pity.
posted by holloway at 1:29 PM on October 12, 2005

Response by poster: Some test some test sdfsdlkfjdsf
posted by holloway at 5:03 PM on November 2, 2005

Response by poster: sdfSDfSDF sdFDfS>Df>sdf sd fsdF
posted by holloway at 5:04 PM on November 2, 2005