Was hoping for some help with getting faxing to work with an OBI200

[Jason99]

Happy New Year to all!

Recently picked up an Obi200, have it set up for calls with Google Voice. Working fine so far for voice calls. Bought a USB fax modem and a phone jack splitter for faxing. Have the USB modem plugged into a USB port on the computer, and the output of the modem going into one of the inputs of the splitter, with the other input used by the phone and the single output of the splitter plugged into the Obi200. The usb modem shows up in Win 10 device manager with no conflicts reported, and supposedly working properly.

As I said, voice works fine with this setup, but all I can get with Win 10 Fax & Scan fax is a prompt that says "fatal error". I checked the Google Voice logs and none of the fax calls I've tried to make even show up there, so it would seem fax calls aren't going anywhere. Based on what I've described does it seem that I have something hooked up incorrectly, or is something else going on? If something else, any tips on how I might attempt to troubleshoot?

Thanks for any input you can give.

[drgeoff]

The phone LED (the one on the right) of the OBi200 should start blinking when either the phone or modem goes off-hook. If that is not happening when trying to send a fax try removing the splitter and plug the modem directly into the OBi. If now blinking investigate the splitter.

If the OBi is sensing the modem going off-hook, put the OBi's IP address into a browser and login with admin and admin. Click on Status. Call Status and Call History my have useful info. Note that Call Status does not automatically update. You need to manually refresh the page.

Do not be tempted to alter any settings using that onboard interface.

[Jason99]

Hey, thanks for getting back. I really appreciate it.

The right LED does start blinking when I attempt to send a fax. The usb modem has a red and green light on it, the red for 'on', the green for when data is transmitting.  I'm seeing both of those active as well when I try to send a fax. I had already tried removing the splitter and having the jack from the modem go directly into the obi200-- didn't change or improve anything. I went into the browser setup. It appears the calls where I was trying to fax don't list the phone number, it just says "ringing", no other info or error messages. For voice calls I've made the number is listed. I see there's a 'reset to default' button in that browser setup mode. Worth trying that??

Any other ideas on what to try? Can't figure out why the heck this won't work.

[SteveInWA]

This sounds like a problem with the fax modem.

If you don't have access to another form of residential telephone service, take a laptop with the fax modem somewhere else that has phone service, and try it in a non-OBi/non-VoIP environment.

RE:  your comment that the log is missing the phone number, try this:  go back to your original setup, plugging in both a telephone and the fax via a splitter jack.  Use a TWO-WIRE code from the fax.  Initiate a fax call.  Pick up the attached phone and listen.  If you don't hear fax tones and DTMF (TouchTone), then the fax program/modem is failing.  If you hear it dialing, then you hear the fax tones with no response, then there's a negotiation problem between the fax and the number it is calling.

You can also try receiving a test fax, vs. sending; perhaps that will give additional clues.

And finally:  just something to check/confirm:  do NOT enable the OBiTALK feature to use the Google Voice SP with a security alarm.

[SteveInWA]

I just tested faxing from Windows 10 Fax & Scan via an OBi 200.

Setup:  Windows 10 PC with generic Conexant CX93010 ACF USB modem.  Modem's phone jack connected to an OBi, using Google Voice.  NO modifications were made to the generic OBi Google Voice configuration.

I sent a one-page test fax to faxtoy.net and it was successful. 

So:  this should simply work.  If not, you probably have a fax modem hardware or configuration issue.

[drgeoff]

Any chance that the fax modem is pulse dialling?  OBis only support tone dialling.

[drgeoff]

^^spam