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Faxing in 15.5 - Possible?

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thereverend

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I just paid for 3cx as I do love the software and think that the developers have earned my hard earned cash for this easy to use platform. That being said I need to know if it is possible to SEND faxes from 3cx. By send faxes from 3cx I mean can i use it like this :

send an email to : [email protected]
with an PDF attachment and the system sends out a fax to that #?

or

Use some type of windows driver to PRINT to 3cx fax and send it that way?

Thanks everyone for the help in advance!!!
 
You can not send faxes via 3cx the way you have suggested,

look at the many internet fax services on the web
 
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I concur with Saqqara. However, you can send outbound fax via a FAX machine through 3CX, but I typically recommend sending via POTS or PRI and NOT SIP.

If you don't want to pay for a traditional phone line, there are some very nice / simple fax services that go over HTTPS and they typically are far less expensive than a traditional phone line. Typically they provide a small gateway (about the size of a modem) where you connect a phone cable from your fax machine to the gateway, and connect the gateway to your internal network to get internet connectivity. Because it runs via secure socket layer (SSL) it's HIPPA compliant. The one drawback to this approach is that the "fax" has to go to the provider, and then to you (or visa versa) which takes a little longer. Net2Phone is one such carrier that provides this service.
 
Faxsipit.com
 
Thank you.. I did set up the software to receive faxes but when I call the #, All i get is dead air. No fax tones etc. even when sending a fax it states FAILED any ideas why there is no fax carrier when i call my fax #?
 
In my experience, the ONLY reliable way to do inbound fax through 3CX is via a PRI or POTS line. You may be able to get a couple of pages to go through via T38, but if you live or dye by fax, don't even try it with SIP -- it simply is not going to be reliable beyond 1-5 pages.
 
Thank you.. I did set up the software to receive faxes but when I call the #, All i get is dead air. No fax tones etc. even when sending a fax it states FAILED any ideas why there is no fax carrier when i call my fax #?
If by "the software" you are referring to 3CX, then this is expected because the in-built fax server by default directly re-negotiates T.38, which contrary to traditional/analog fax machines do not exchange audio tones to negotiate.

In regards to the fax failing, the first thing you need to check is if your Provider supports T38. If they do, then we would need to check why the T38 negotiation is failing.
If they don't, you can try out a Beta option that was introduced to 3CX a few service packs ago called "G711 fallback". Basically this is an attempt to receive faxes using audio instead of T38.
To enable this option go to Settings --> Fax Server and check option "Enable G.711 to T.38 Fallback [BETA]". Once you do this you need to restart all 3CX Services for this to take effect.

Generally I will agree with all of the people in this thread who say "FAX over VoIP is a bit of a nightmare". I will not got into details as to why as I feel its not really relevant here. We have however greatly improved the built-in FAX Server in the latest versions so now I must admit that it works rather well with providers that support T38.

Enabling option "Enable G.711 to T.38 Fallback [BETA]" though reduces success rate but does enable incoming faxing when using providers that do not support T38.
 
We haven't had many issues so far with receiving faxes via SIP trunk using the 3cx server. We use Welltech ATA172's for sending faxes via SIP (using t38 if posssible, falling back to G711). Our current main SIP trunks are from Windstream, and we have a backup trunk from Nextiva. The Nextiva works better for analog ATA's than the Windstream, but neither are officially supported by 3CX. Our approach is to use the ATA's to SEND and the 3CX to RECEIVE to an email. The analog adapters are less than $80 and the trunks we pay for anyway, so there's no additional monthly fee for faxing services.

If fax is critical to your business, do something different.
(you can take that statement many different ways, eh? ;)
 
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