STT757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 16316 posts, RR: 52 Posted (4 years 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 1768 times:
Can I use a fax machine on a Vonage VOIP line, they advertise on their website a second fax line but that's not what I need. I just need to fax stuff once a week, I don't want a second line I just want to fax over the house line. Is that possible without buying anything additional, I have Cable phone service now that does not support fax. I was thinking of switching to Vonage, any experiences?..
Jetblueguy22 From United States of America, joined Nov 2007, 2053 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (4 years 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 1760 times:
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I am 90% sure that you can fax. My father had it and I remember the fax line down and him using the Vonage line for the faxes. Vonage is good for voice. The only problem is sometimes it goes down. If you are using it for a home service it is excellent. I wouldn't use it for business, though.
Blue
Professor Foltz: You push down on that yoke, the houses get bigger, you pull back on the yoke, the houses get bigger.
Dreadnought From United States of America, joined Feb 2008, 7881 posts, RR: 22 Reply 3, posted (4 years 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 1729 times:
Quoting STT757 (Thread starter): Can I use a fax machine on a Vonage VOIP line, they advertise on their website a second fax line but that's not what I need. I just need to fax stuff once a week, I don't want a second line I just want to fax over the house line. Is that possible without buying anything additional, I have Cable phone service now that does not support fax. I was thinking of switching to Vonage, any experiences?..
Depends where you are. Vonage is not a telephone company. They are simply a marketing and feature platform and they use the actual telecom backbone of other telephone companies which sell their origination services, like Level 3 or Global Crossing. If your particular line is on a Level 3 network, you are probably out of luck because their network is not T.38 compliant (fax-capable). Global Crossing is ok for T.38.
If you can send me your NPA-NXXX (area code and next 4 digits) I should be able to tell you which network Vonage would use for you. Send an instant message for privacy.
COIAHLGW From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 154 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (4 years 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 1704 times:
Here's a whole forum devoted to Vonage faxing
https://forums.vonage.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30
I am a Vonage customer, and have a fax machine in the closet for the once a year I need to send a fax. No problems here after setting the fax machine to 9600 rather than 14400. However, as you will see in the forum, your experience may vary.
If you do try Vonage and don't like it, cancel within the first 30 days or there are some steep termination charges...
STT757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 16316 posts, RR: 52 Reply 5, posted (4 years 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 1702 times:
Hmm, seems like I might be able to make it work so long as I set up the fax for basic service. I'll give it a shot.
I was looking at getting their basic package, $17.99 per month. What's the catch or difference between the $17.99 package and the $24.99 package they push so hard?..
btw..
I live about 10-15 minutes down the road from the Vonage headquarters, it used to be Bell labs.
Dreadnought From United States of America, joined Feb 2008, 7881 posts, RR: 22 Reply 6, posted (4 years 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 1698 times:
Quoting STT757 (Reply 5): live about 10-15 minutes down the road from the Vonage headquarters, it used to be Bell labs.
Doesn't matter. They don't have a network of their own. For incoming calls at least you are at the mercy of whatever CLEC they buy DIDs from in that area. For outgoing calls (or faxes), you'll have a better chance, as the ATA will go IP to IP directly to Vonage's gateway. But I still think you run the risk of not being able to recieve faxes reliably.
Have you tested your bandwdth's latency and jitter?
Any packet loss of more than 1 or 2% will cause you problems. Jitter is usually manageable if less than 100-150 ms (more than this test allows), Any latency more than 50 ms could be bad news.
Remember that VoIP is not the same as telephone service. You are using the internet to send data packets which must be reassembled in realtime at the other end, in the place of an analog connection. With good equipment, this is rarely a problem. Anyone now getting his phone service via his cable company for instance is using VoIP, and most people never even notice the difference. But vonage has been using the same old cheap-ass Linksys 2102 ATA for years, and in my opinion it just doesn't cut it.
CasInterest From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 3336 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (4 years 17 hours ago) and read 1665 times:
Quoting STT757 (Reply 7): I don't need to receive faxes, I'm looking to send a fax once a week.
There are services for your PC where you can just scan a fax in and send it in email. This would probably work for you.
However what Dreadnought stated above is true. Vonage is not responsible for QOS(Quality of Service) on their networks. The Network Provider they lease from is. I don't think Vonage is paying for QOS, so they are at the mercy of the providers. That being said, if all you have to do is send one fax a week, as long as Vonage uses G.711 for RTP, then just wait till 9:00 P.M till 7:00 A.M to send your Fax. These times will have the least users using bandwidth which will actually assure you of higher QOS since Jitter will be less of an issue(Shouldn't be an issue). If Vonage is using G.729 for voice and not offering T.38 for fax you are going to be out of luck for the most part, but you might get lucky at the times above. I have occasionally seen G.729 successfully send a fax. But that signal has to be Crisp and clear.
one more thing, the fact that they are offering the "2nd" fax line leads me to believe they have t.38. Vonage has to have it due to the QOS concerns above. T.38 has redundancy which allows the last 2 packets to be piggybacked on the current one, to help ensure a more reliable delivery.
[Edited 2009-06-19 05:48:18]
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COIAHLGW From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 154 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (4 years 12 hours ago) and read 1649 times:
The difference between the lower cost package and higher cost package is that the $24.99 per month plan is an unlimited plan, as far as domestic (US, Canada, Puerto Rico) calls go. It also includes unlimited international calling to landlines (not mobiles) to the UK, Ireland, France Spain and Italy.
With the $17.99/month plan, it includes 500 minutes to the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. No international calling is included with this plan, but they do offer competitive rates.
You don't say what your current regular calling needs are, but Vonage includes additional great features. I use the call forwarding the most, as that way you can always receive calls. The free international calling is great for me to the UK as I have family both sides of the pond, and I can plug in my phone adapter to the Internet in England and use it there to continue to make/receive calls as if I'm at home.
I know this has nothing to do with faxing of course, but the bottom line is that I am happy with the service I have received so far. Will be 2 years next month.
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