by lneblett » Wed Feb 01, 2012 1:28 pm
You need an analog gateway. In this case, a FXO ATA. Take the fax line directly to the fax. I assume the line is dedicated to it and was never intended to be used as a voice line. Look/Google for Cisco SPA3102 or Grandstream HT503. They both have 1 FXO port and 1 FXS port. You can take a look at the 3CX blog to get more details on how to configure for 3CX. The SPA3102 is officially supported and is generally considered an excellent device. I have not used the HT503, but have used the HT502 which is closley related and have had no problems. If you intend to use the fax line through 3CX, then you need an ATA that has at least 2 FXO ports, but I am not familiar with how Vonage handles fax so am unsure how well it may function. Assuming no issue with how Vonage handles fax, you will need at the fax end (the extension that you assign the fax) a FXS ATA.
Fundamemntally, you plug the Rj11 from Vonage into the ATA FXO port and then connect the ethernet port into your network. You then follow the instructions that came with the ATA to open its built-in webbrowser whereupon you begin the configuration process so that the ATA can be recoginized and registered on the 3CX system - again look at the blogs. THE FXS ATA does a somewhat similar task to the FXO ATA, but is used to connect device like a fax or a common analog telephone handset. Connect the ethernet port and take a cable from the ATA''s FXS port to the fax. Similar method of programming. The FXO will be registered as a Trunk and you will need to set the rules while the FXS should be registered as an extension. There will likley be some added configuration for the fax aspect and it may be very frustrating as fax is not always easy. Just read the blogs and forum to see if you want to go this route. In your case and assuming that you only connect the voice line, keep in mind that you will only have the one voice line available for both incoming and outgoing calls. If it is in use - you will only be able to conduct internal to internal extension calls and an outside caller will get a busy signal. You may want to consider adding more lines to get a more full featured benefit of the system and you might look at doing SIP rather than Vonage.