I have an Obi202 set up and running currently and I would like to add a fax machine to my set up. My question is what would be the best device to use to allow this? I was thinking about getting a 110 as I have seen people reference them with fax lines before, however I see the new 200 is like a mix of the 110 and 202.
I have a general idea of how I would like to set it up just need help with selecting a device. If I could get away with the 100 (being the lest expensive) I would like to do that.
Any advice?
Thank you,
Brian
Quote from: Brian_Yurgin on June 02, 2013, 10:50:41 AM
I have an Obi202 set up and running currently and I would like to add a fax machine to my set up. My question is what would be the best device to use to allow this?
If you are not using the Phone 2 port on your OBi202, use that for fax. Otherwise the OBi100 would be fine.
Mmm, I don't know about the Obi100 if you will be using it for dedicated faxing. I have an Obi100 and can receive and send faxes, but I have to set my FAX machine to 9600 with no error correction enabled. I know the 202 supports T.38 which should be better for this type of thing so long as your provider supports it. Someone with more knowledge on the Obi202 & T.38 would have to chime in with their experiences. I believe the Obi200 also has T.38 backed in.
Smee
I've OBi202 for a few months. I've been testing it with fax using a Canon multi-function inkjet (has an IP phone line setting) and Windows Fax. Testing used Verizon landline, Google Voice and Callcentric. ISP is Comcast cable and with voipqualitytest.com I consistently get green lights across the board except for "consistency of service" where I score a yellow light. My experience with voice calls GV and CC quality is excellent; on par with landline. So YMMV with fax compared to me, the OBi hardware is just one link in the chain.
Here are my observations:
1) If fax using the phone line is critical, do NOT use VOIP. If you read the fine print NONE of the VOIP providers guarantees or even recommends fax over their service (including CC, despite supporting T.38).
2) CC supports T.38, GV does not.
3) Short faxes (1-2 pages): I was able to send faxes successfully using both GV or CC at speeds up to 33.6K baud.
3) For longer faxes (20 pages): GV could handle long faxes if I reduced to 14.4 baud. CC would fail at about 7 pages at 14.4 baud (but probably not due to any inherent quality problem - see below).
4) There is an undocumented "feature" of CC where they disconnect the line if there is more than 5 minutes of silence from one party on the call. There is no way to disable this. This is a problem with long faxes when the sending fax transmits data for over 5 minutes and CC terminates the call because it thinks the recipient caller has hung up. Very frustrating, but other than splitting a long fax up, no other way.
5) I was able to use error correction without problems.
Thanks for posting!