How well does analog fax work?

[SteveITS]

I tried searching but the forum says keywords fxs, fax, etc. are too short.

How well do analog fax machines actually work through 3CX, via gateway (https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/) in the real world? Can someone really just get a gateway device, plug the fax into it, and have no transmission issues?

 

[cobaltit]

You can't even plug a fax machine into a POTS line and have no issues!

For occassional faxing, ATAs work ok. We're talking a couple pages a month, 5 or less pages per fax, etc.

If it's anything important (like they get 1 fax a month but it's 50 pages or it's a contact or something) important, then you'll want to stay with POTS lines or use a 'store and forward' adapter.

 

[SteveITS]

OK thank you for the assessment. That was kind of my impression, just wanted to double check with those with experience already. Several clients/prospects had/have Comcast voice which is VoIP to their gateway already. Don't want to recommend they buy a special device and then have trouble with it. So far most have been OK with inbound scan-to-email and scanning outbound, or keeping one line for the fax.

 

[cobaltit]

Yeah inbound fax to email via 3cx is pretty solid when done with a good provider. But since we are a MSP and work with a telecom broker we usually recommend they use a POTS or emulated POTS line, especially with something like Comcast which often does a bundle with internet + analog line.