hp3200 and oki 87 faxes on a PBX network...c'mon...

[jamtoast]

Hi There All Great and Technical Ones

I have a curious problem here at my office and satellite sites. Our PBX network used to run Nefax faxes quite happily then we killed the contract and brought in the header mixture (oki and HP) These were quite happy for a time then some would start being able to only send and not receive. They wont even sense the incoming call. Telecomms swear they havent changed a thing. Why are older faxes suddenly not picking up calls and why are SOME of the new ones - unsetuppable? Is it a digital thang? HP swear that they whould work on PBX. Should they be on analogue lines? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know you guys aint really fax orientated but neither am I. Mondo Thanks.

 

[392]

Check for ring voltage coming from the PBX analog cards. It's quite possible your system sends a borderline ring voltage (<90 VAC) and the faxes are not sensing enough to trip to trigger an incoming off-hook condition to answer. It may be that the voltage was always just above minimum acceptable levels, then as the PBX cards and faxes aged, they &quot;talked quieter and were listened to with a deaf ear&quot;.

Test the faxes by plugging them directly into a 1FB circuit and see if CO ring voltage does the trick.

 

[jamtoast]

Cheers 392 - Do you mean like to plug it in to a standard BT wall socket like at home and see if it can hear incoming calls?
Sorry mate - I do PCs not PBX and fax - just picking up on this to help our Purchasing section out of a jam if I can.
Mondo thanks again.

 

[franke]

jamtoast, you failed to mention what type of &quot;PBX&quot; your connecting to and how calls get to the fax machines. Have you tried calling the extensions associated with the fax machines directly to see if the fax machine answears (we'll assume no one has inadvertantly shut off the auto-answear feature). If not, you probably have a station module probelm try moving it to a known working analog port and again place an extension to extension call and see if it now answears.

If you are able to place an extension to extension and have the fax answear, then the problem could be a trunk module problem or a dialtone vendor problem. I have run into several situations were the ringing voltage coming from SBC Ameritech was wildly swinging between 23 v and 123 v. This resulted in phantom rings, ring-no-answear (to the calling party), etc. It took quite a bit of 'discussion' with SBC to concede that it was their problem and not a switch problem.

 

[392]

Yes, I should have been a bit more specific. Plug the offending fax machines directly into a plug with a phone number on it and call the number. If the machine answers there, it is most likely a PBX problem. If it does not, it's likely a fax machine problem.

If it's a PBX problem, it may be caused by failing cards in the PBX, poor connectivity between the PBX and your fax or even a phone line issue. You have to &quot;cut it in half&quot; and see if the problem still exists, then take the known failure and cut that in half until a single item is found to be the cause. Basic troubleshooting 101 stuff.

Good luck!

 

[jamtoast]

Thank 392 and franke for your info - heres the deal - the fax can quite happily SEND on the PBX. It just cannot receive or even hear an incoming call. If I plug a phone into the same port it can quite happily sense the incoming call and I can pick it up. I havent tried the fax on an analogue line as there are more than this fax affected and at all different locations in the organisation. It cant be that all the other faxes old and new have a similar fault.
The only thing I havent done yet is to take a working fax and try it on the &quot;Non working&quot; port. If it doesnt work on it would this then signify &quot;old pbx cards&quot; - whatever they are?
thanks again guys - I'll post again when I test out the working fax on the non working port - that is when these phones flipping stop ringing!!!

 

[franke]

Again jamtoast, it would help if you stated what type of system you have, and how calls are directed to the faxes. Are they called directly to an extension assigned to the fax? Are the calls transferred? Are all the non-working faxes on the same or different modules?

The more information you can supply, the easier it will be to narrow down the problem