Hi Folks, new to the forum here. I had a question.

Would polarity have anything to do with faxing issues? I have a linksys ATA 2102 punched into a 110 to house cabling down 2 floors to a fax machine (Xerox Qube) the fax WILL NOT answer a fax from machine but if you call it it answers with tone; as well as plugging a handset into the jack you can have a 2 way conversation. Everything on this line right now is pointing to the fax machine and I wouldnt believe it's polarity - however my boss is telling me it may be polarity and well i just dont have enough education in this area to really give him a definitive answer.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

probably not polarity related but why not reverse the polarity and test it ?

Not a good way to greet a first time poster.

It the fax machine set to answer?

I would check the fax settings also.

"Is the fax machine set to answer?"

The OP states that it answers when called by a person, but does not answer if called by a fax machine. This is a logical contradiction. A fax machine does not have intelligence to know how an incoming call was placed.

I suspect that there is a misunderstanding of what is really happening. Until we know the exact symptoms, we will be in the dark.

I suggest that two, different, known-working fax machines be used, one at the sending end, and one at the receiving end, and see if there's a problem.

ATA = VOIP = Probable cause off Fax issues

Nice catch Skip, read right past that.

I totally agree. I was in a bit of a rush last night when I posted it and about 8 hours into "chasing ghosts" at this customer location on this fax - I was a bit pissed and frustrated at my higher ups giving me crap suggestions and I was just exhausted. (Polarity, Ring Voltages, etc) I’m a pretty knowledgeable guy but for some reason under stress and exhaustion I tend to wig out.

Basically we have a customer with 2 ATA’s – each has 1 fax line on it.

So for this explanation I’m going to use the following:

A) 555-555-1200 –
a. Working Fax Number, in place for 4 weeks no issues.
b. Connected via Linksys SPA 2102
c. Provisioned to “best practice” (ie: voipmechanic.com etc/Linksys user guide)
d. House cable connects to a Xerox WorkCentre 5500 series
B) 555-555-1201 –
a. Connects from a separate ATA configured identically to A’s ATA
b. Runs to a Xerox Qube
c. Can Send but not receive faxes

So what have we done so far on it. Well after a bunch of kicking and screaming with the customer we’ve done the following:

[ A’s ATA] -> B’s House Wiring to Xerox Qube = does not work, same scenario
[B’s ATA] -> A’s house wiring to Workcentre = works fine

We then took an older Xerox portable fax machine and plugged it into B’s house wiring at the wall-jack. Works fine both ways no issues.

It appears to just be this Xerox Qube for whatever reason – so they called Xerox support on it and they’ve adjusted baud etc etc but it is still failing.

I’ve advised to my boss’s that Xerox straight up doesn’t support faxing over voip but of course I hear it that “well we’ve got tons of deployments doing faxing with ATA’s so fix it.”

Just a few responses:

I know a fax machine doesn’t care if it’s a machine or person calling; like I said the pressure to get this fixed has me grasping at straws. I also don’t think polarity is the issue AT ALL and probably never would be since this stuff is all IC’s anyhow and the fact I can make and receive faxes/calls on the line just not from the Qube.

However when something isn’t working and my bosses / customers are asking me WHY it isn’t working – it’s a bit hard for me to explain why the fax machine isn’t answering when a fax machine dials it vs a human… ya know what I mean?

UPDATE of this morning:
Intermittent inbound fax problems on the Qube now. Seems it takes about 10 minutes to receive 2 of 5 pages after disconnect. Oh well

Frankly – I’ve advised to my higher ups that faxing over voip with ata’s is a ridiculous practice and should be avoided for commercial use. They don’t believe me of course and continue to push me and others to support this horrendous implementation.

Thanks for your time.

Simply put then....

a) change the machine, or
b) change the service

Let them decide.

Definitely agreed. How do you push back on bosses who insist it should work? I mean I'm all for telling it like it is but I aint losing my job over it

Other VOIP services recommend lowering of speed and reducing the quality.

Data of any kind doesn't like IP. Your old fax works so that tells me you need to lower all standards on the new one. Your boss can be stuborn all he wants, but this is a known problem with IP services. Most people I've delt with that had IP service for voice kept a POTS line for their fax.

Does your VOIP provider support T.38? If so make sure that the SPA2102 is setup for T.38 as well.

Who is the VOIP provider that you are using?

Yeah they've put in a service call to xerox to go into "service mode" and change the baud rate. I do believe it failed as well.

My boss isnt just stubborn - he's BEYOND stubborn. Thinks since we have an ATA in place everything should work fine. He's dense as all holy ****. He's a sales guy and owns the company so everything he's ever read sounds like gospel when he talks to you.. I try to explain but he just tells me I'm wrong so I just forget about it.

rcsinfo: We're the VOIP provider. We basically have an MPLS T1 to the customer site and then SIP register the ATA back to our broadsoft platform.

We've forced uncompressed codec back on the broadsoft platform - ATA is set T38 YES and preferred codec is g711u with supression/cancellation off and modem pass-through set to NSE (it has re-invite as an option but not finding relevant info on WHAT this does) we've also turned off CW/3rd party and all that jazz.

I'm confident it's the machine.

and just add when I say BEYOND boy do I mean BEYOND... he's one of those guys that is like "well there has to be a way..." for everything. Very optimistic.

I'm not much of a ATA kinda guy - my area of expertise is T1, IP routing all that good stuff and packet analysis. I have no idea why I'm out working on this crap anyway

I think you solved your own problem.


So why are you trying to fix (blame) something else other than the failing fax machine?

I'm not, but the boss is. I've actually gave this over to another tech. I just told the boss that I cant fix it because it's not our problem and well we'll see how the other tech handles it.

One would think it would be simple. "Boss, the old fax machine works. The new one doesn't".

I see the problem is your boss, He is the provider and doesn't want to tell your customer that their Xerox machine won't work on his service. I suspect this is also a new customer rather than an existing customer getting a new fax machine?

Trying to be as kind as I can, I think he's hoping that if it can't be made to work, the customer will at least recognize that he tried and therefor not dump him.

Ahhh Ha! It figures! So now we have the reason we all have so much trouble with this crap. Tell your boss that there are about 100 techs reading this that will be coming by to adjust his attitude!

-Hal

All you guys forming up to prove Hal is correct, send 1 undercover, or you'll ALL go to jail as accessories!

Right they have an existing Qube in place and they are a new turn up. Pretty big account - MPLS T1 with about 20 phones and 2 fax lines. Prolly looking at a 3K a month biller.

To Hal: I'm with ya...