Digital receptionist and Fax extension

Hello.

I want to use my digital receptionist with a fax extension. When I receive a call, the caller will have an option to my fax in the prompt menu from my digital receptionist. How can I do this ? How can I make a fax extension ?

Thank you again.

RE: Digital receptionist and Fax extension

So in essence, you want to activate the fax recognition function via an IVR choice, right?

RE: Digital receptionist and Fax extension

Yes it is !

This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Dia on 26.09.2009 at 10:13.

RE: Digital receptionist and Fax extension

Now that I think I understood what you are after, let me run through a call scenario, based on your requirements. Two callers dial a single DID (not necessarily at the same time), one of them elects to talk to a person, while the other to send a fax.

The first caller selects an IVR option and his call ends up on an extension or voicemail. The second caller is obliged to dial the DID number through the handset of his fax machine, listen to the IVR choices and select the one which sends the call to your "fax machine".

I hope it is evident the above scenario is cumbersome, with no apparent advantage in handling faxes from the caller's perspective. The way I see it, there are two elegant ways to accept inbound faxes.

• Get a separate DID to handle faxes, and set its' Inbound Route to the System fax handling procedure, or to a fax extension (an ATA which supports T.38 connected to a real fax machine) in the Fax Handling section.
• If a separate DID cannot be easily obtained or the cost justified, set the Fax Switch to Yes under Options, and the Fax Extension to System, along with an email account to deliver the incoming faxes, in the Fax Handling section of the existing Inbound Route of the DID.

Electing the second option will introduce a slight delay on every inbound call to that DID, before the call reaches the IVR. This delay is necessary for the system's fax procedure to determine if fax tones are present on every call, thus obliterating the need for a fax option to be present on the IVR.

In essence, anyone wishing to send a fax, doesn't need to listen to your IVR and select an option to get to the "fax extension".

There is however, a big caveat with any FoIP (Fax over IP) implementation. The only way to find out, is by trial and error using different providers' DIDs. The fax protocol was never designed to use connections with variable jitter, and the fax timers are a lot stricter that voice's timers.

I hope this provides you with an answer to your question.

This post has been edited 2 time(s), it was last edited by i-p on 26.09.2009 at 15:23.