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Service Hints & Tips

Document ID: MCGN-3FZPYH

Aptiva - Problems sending or receiving faxes

Applicable to: United States

There are several reasons why you may not receive faxes in the Aptiva Communication Center..

If you are experiencing fax printing problems or fax markup problems(i.e. you are able to view a received fax in the fax log, but unable to print out a hard copy of the fax to a printer) download the latest updates for the program.

Have you disabled the answering machine?

YES - When you disable the telephone answering machine (TAM), the computer will not pick up to receive a fax. In order to check, do the following:

1.) In Communication Center go to 'Settings'.
2.) Go to 'Answering Machine'.
3.) Make sure there is an 'X' in the box for 'enable answering machine'.
4.) Click on the 'Save' button to save this configuration.

NO - Continue below.

NOTE: Make sure that your outgoing message is at least 20 seconds long.

- The following items should be considered as well.

Click on 'Start', 'Run' and type the following in the box, "C:\mww\discrim\discapp.exe" Make the following changes to the Options section.

1.) Add an Area Code
2.) Change the icon on the "If silence after answer treat call as" from a Modem icon to a Fax icon.

NOTE: These icons are extremely difficult to discern. The modem may best be described by a large black box. The modem would best be described as all white. The last option is treat call as voice. This is a green zig-zagged line.

3.) Put an "X" in the "Enable Initial Greeting"
4.) Click "OK" This should help you send and receive faxes.

HINTS ABOUT WHY SOME FAX MACHINES MAY NOT COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR APTIVA FAX SOFTWARE:

- Another cause is that long faxes tend not to transmit correctly at rates above the speed of 9600 bps. This is a problem with older fax machines and high speed fax transmissions.

- Most fax machines send a 1100Hz (CNG) announce tone. Most produce this tone; some older fax machines do not produce this tone (they were around before this was a standard) and some fax machines do not produce this tone unless someone hits the "send" button.

Since some fax machines do not produce this tone, the designers of these packages added a fail-safe, the ability to also look for a "0" tone. For those keeping score, the "0" tone is actually two tones (DTMF) consisting of the frequencies 1477Hz and 941Hz. The "0" tone method was predicated on the idea that most people would be able to produce this tone. As we know, this is not one hundred percent effective. Some systems will not allow you to produce this tone as the keypad may be disabled without the handset. Other fax machines may not have a keypad at all. So what does all this mean? If you have an older fax machine, or one that does not produce an announce tone, and has no means to produce a "0" tone, a telephony package, like FaxWorks or Aptiva Communication Center, will not be able to automatically determine that the incoming call is a fax. The end result is a missed fax or a voice message of fax machine negotiation tones.

In order to compensate for this earlier lack of a standard, execute the Mwave discriminator by clicking on Start, then click on Run, and type: C:\MWW\DISCRIM\DISCAPP.EXE. When the Mwave Discriminator box appears, click on Options from the pulldown menu, then click on DTMF Code... This will give you the ability to set a DTMF code (Dual Tone Multi-Frequency) that the Mwave discriminator can use to discriminate between a fax and a message. The default for receiving faxes is *3.

If you or your sender has an older fax machine, or one that does not produce an announce tone and has no means to produce a "0" tone, or a telephony package (like FaxWorks or Aptiva Communication Center), it will not be able to automatically determine that the incoming call is a fax. The end result is a missed fax or a voice message of fax negotiation tones.

NOTE: Beware, your remote message retrieval password cannot begin with the number 3.

	Search Keywords
	Hint Category	Communications Software
	Date Created	10-04-97
	Last Updated	17-02-99
	Revision Date	17-02-2000
	Brand	IBM Aptiva
	Product Family	Aptiva
	Machine Type	2134, 2176, 2168, 2144
	Model	6R6; C21; C31; C32; 6R9; C31; F31; C6D; 8R6; 8R9; 9R4; 6R8; 7R1; 7R3; 7R6; 7R7; 7R9; 7RO; 8R1; 8R8; 9R2; 9R3; C23; C33; C35; C55; C56; C65; C66; C67; C6V; C6Y; C6Z; C73; C76; C77; F23; F33; F35; F67; 5R5; M91; 2R5; 2R7; 2R8; M30; M35; M50; 2R6; 4R7; 4R8; M40; M54; M58; 3R0; 3R8; M60; M70; 3R4; 3R6; 4R1; 4R9; M31; M51; M52; M63; 2R9; 3R1; 3R3; 3R5; 3R7; 3R9; 4R0; 4R2; 4R3; M41; M53; M55; M56; M57; M61; M62; M71; M72; 5R1; 6R3; A10; A12; A14; 5R2; 5R3; 5R6; 5R8; 5R9; 6R0; 6R4; 6R5; A15; A40; A44; A45; A50; A51; A52; A90; A92; A94
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