Fax machines - any way to not have to dial 9? 2

[mikestl]

I just recently for my company switched over two fax machines that were on their own seperate POTS lines to our Merlin Magix sytem. They are both running off a an OPT 008 card we purchased for the task. Everything is working great. However, it is now necessary to dial 9 first before the number when sending a fax out. What I am wondering is if there is a way to eliminate the need to do this. I have tried the route of setting the fax machine to dial this prefix automatically. Our fax machines do not have this capability. Is there any setting in Merlin Magix to eliminate the need to dial the need to dial 9? Maybe there would be a way to tell the system to always automatically give that extension an outside line? Any thoughts on this are appreciated. Thanks!

Mike

 

[jgideon]

The Hotline feature should give you what you're looking for.

 

[merlinman]

Actually there is an easy way to do this.

1) Assign the outgoing line pool to the fax machine.
(Extensions > Lines & Trunks)

2) UNDER Centralized Programming for the fax extension, touch the button and dial *35 (Turns off ringing)

3) Also, under Centalized Programming, touch the button again, dial *14, and then touch the button one more time and then press enter.

This sets auto line select to that button (the outgoing pool).

That should do it.

A couple of more things, I would also set the fax as the fax extension in your mail system. That way, if auto attendent hears fax tone, it will send it to the fax machine.

In the MAGIX, I would also set the extension to be a fax extension under aux equip. This makes it ring better.

 

[mikestl]

Thanks for the replies! I tried the hotline method and it worked for me. I did have to play around with the dial string a bit to get the hotline method to work. Here is how I did it in case it may be helpful to others:

Before setting the extension to hotline mode, I plugged an analog phone in the jack the the fax is plugged into, then dialed #00#01*219#. That tells it to set the first personal speed dial to dial 9. Basically the hotline feature works by dialing the first personal speed dial number automatically. Note: Be sure not to put two pound signs at the end of the above string.

After this is done, set that extension to a hotline extension. You can do this under system programming / extensions / hotline. Just give it the extension number the fax is on.

The only problem with this setup I can see is that you do not get a dial tone when you pick up the phone. You just get silence. However, you can still place a call. If your fax machine doesn't care if there is a dial tone before it places a call (both of ours do not), then you should be fine.

Also thanks merlinman for that info. Sounds like that could be the more official way of doing it. I may try it if I run into problems with this setup. Otherwise, I don't want to play around too much and end up breaking something.

Mike

 

[merlinman]

The "HOTLINE" feature is one I would not have thought of.

That is a cool and inovative way to do that.

(BUT, I like my way bettter....)

Either way would work, but with the way I suggested, you do get dial tone.

 

[Ghostin]

Merlinman way is a lot easier and faster as well.

 

[jgideon]

I like Merlinman's method, too... truth told, I have done very little with analog stations, so I hadn't even thought of auto line select.

 

[mikestl]

Hey well if that way does get a dial tone then I think I'll switch over to that. That way things are more likely to work if the company decides to add a different fax machine or modem!