Using Fax Line for Outbound

General Help
1

Thanks to SkyKing and others, I now have my FreePBX Distro installation/upgrade completed.

So, once more to the well…

I have a dedicated fax line that is used mostly for receiving faxes and a five line hunt group that is hooked up to a Sangoma card.

Is it possible to configure FreePBX to plug the fax line into the Sangoma card, but to ignore incoming calls?

Since I’m paying Verizon for the underused fax line anyway (with unlimited long distance service) I’d like to use the fax line as a back up 6th line for outgoing calls, but I don’t want the PBX to pick up incoming calls - I still want the fax machine to pick them up.

Thanks again for all your help and happy holidays to all.

2

Most Fax machines have two rj11 jacksm one for the line and one for the phone, plug the phone jack into the Sangoma. The Fax machine will intercept all faxes and pass non-fax calls to your FreePBX.

3

That is a good idea.

The problem I have is that the fax machine is two floors away from the PBX, and on the opposite end of a office building, so if there is a way to easily configure FreePBX to do the job, there would be no wiring involved.

4

You can set the “pause before answer” on your inbound route to perhaps 10 seconds?

5

set the fax to answer on the 1st ring and set pause before answer as long as you can get it.

6

Bill,

it’s funny how things have changed, not long ago all telephoney was done on wires, and there are still lots of them in the wall, I sometimes reuse them in a pinch for the odd Ethernet endpoint.

If I was doing it, I would hopefully send the “phone jack” back from the fax on the orange pair, then patch it through to the PBX and thus the Sangoma Card. But I’ve got a toner a punch-tool. That way the fax-line can be the end of g0 for outbound, and any voice calls would just end up as it’s related DID voice call. Ideally of course the fax would be on an FXS port on the PBX, then it just works.

7

I have created an inbound route with the fax DID and the “pause before answer” set to 20 and it’s working great. Thanks!

8

Yep agree. As far as I am Concerned, asterisk is just another PBX. Granted, it has a few more features, but, then so did a plug and cord switchboard at a business over one or two direct lines. I actually worked a Plug and Cord PBX while i was in high school. i think a lot of newcomers don’t have that telephony background. Asterisk is a telephone system first!

Back to the first proposition though…most of the high end multi functions like the Canon IR series don’t have a separate RJ11 for a phone.

Haven’t really pade a whole lot of attention to the low end consumer grade stuff I guess those may have two jacks.