How can I set my ring number in my phone and my fax machine before answering?

It seems that you're sharing your home phone line with your Lexmark fax machine. You can adjust the "pick-up" ring from the printer operator panel by pressing the Setup button > Fax Setup > Ringing and Answering > Pick Up On > select your preferred number of rings before the fax answers.
Please note:
If you have an answering machine connected to the same line as the fax, set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. Increase the number of rings by a factor of 3 over the answering machine. For example, if the answering machine is set to pick up on 4 rings, set the printer to pick up on 7 rings.

If you have a voicemail feature in the same line as the fax, you may subscribe from your phone service provider for a distinctive ring pattern feature. You can program your printer to have a distinctive ring pattern and phone number for incoming faxes.

Should you still need assistance, please leave a comment to my response and I'll get back to you. Should this resolves your problem, your rating will be greatly appreciated.

Either your fax machine is set to answer on more rings then your answering machine is or you dont have the automatic answer key pushed?

Determine how many rings your answering machine picks up on and then change the number of rings to a lower amount on your fax machine. To change the number of rings before picking up the line, press the "menu" key on the fax machine and use the up and down arrows to scroll until you find the "basic fax set up" or the "advanced set up" areas. I am not sure which one will have the number of rings setting. Try looking in both until you find it.

when you see it press "ok" or "enter" get in and change the amount of rings before answering. call your fax machine to make sure it picks up before your answering machine.

This should solve your problem.

To set the answer mode to manual or automatic via the control panel

? Press Auto Answer to turn the light on or off, as appropriate for your setup.

When the Auto Answer light is on, the device answers calls automatically. When

the light is off, the it does not answer calls.

To set the answer mode to manual or automatic via the embedded Web server

1. Open the embedded Web server, click the Settings tab, click Fax in the left pane,

and then click the Basic sub-tab.

2. Select On or Off in the Auto Answer drop-down menu in the Other Basic Fax

Settings section.

Set the number of rings before answering

If you turn on the Auto Answer setting, you can specify how many rings occur before

incoming calls are automatically answered.

The Rings to Answer setting is important if you have an answering machine on the

same phone line as the device, because you want the answering machine to answer

the phone before the device does. The number of rings to answer for the device

should be greater than the number of rings to answer for the answering machine.

For example, set your answering machine to a low number of rings and the device to

answer in the maximum number of rings. (The maximum number of rings varies by

country/region.) In this setup, the answering machine answers the call and the device

monitors the line. If the device detects fax tones, it receives the fax. If the call is a

voice call, the answering machine records the incoming message.

To set the number of rings before answering via the control panel

1. Press Setup.

2. Press Basic Fax Setup, and then press Rings to Answer.

3. Enter the appropriate number of rings by using the keypad, or press the left or right

arrow button to change the number of rings.

4. Press OK to accept the setting.

To set the number of rings before answering via the embedded Web server

1. Open the embedded Web server, click the Settings tab, click Fax in the left pane

and then click the Basic sub-tab.

2. Select a number in the Rings-to-answer drop-down menu in the Other Basic Fax
Settings section.

>first run fax test, press set up go to tools menu then select run fax test,all entries should be pass
>then check your connections, do you have one line or number for your fax and phone?or a separate line or another number for fax and another number for phone?
>let me assume you only have one number for fax and phone..
>check connections, this should be downstream connection, the fax machine using the black phone cord provided by hp should be connected directly to the phone jack using line 1 at the back of the fax and the answering machine or the telephone should be connected to ext 2 or line 2 at the back of the fax...there should be no other devices phone or answering machine connected directly to the phone jack.
>next set rings to answer on the fax machine higher than the answering machine...if your rings to answer on answering machine is 4 rings, set the fax to 6 rings...if it is a voice call the answering machine will pick it up at 4 rings then if it detects that it it a fax tone then it will transfer the call to fax.
>also check if auto answer is on in your fax
>you can check auto answer and rings to answer by pressing set up or menu button on your machine look for it in basic fax settings or advance settings
>also check if your voice prompt for your answering machine is not too short there should be like at least 5 seconds after cutting your message to allow the machine to transfer the call to the fax if it is a fax tone.

The following set up assumes you have one conventional phone line, but two different phone numbers. One being your regular phone number and the other a distinctive ring for your fax machine

If that is what you have then this is how you set up the phone. Its important to know what type of distinctive ring your phone company will send to your phone. If it doesn't work you can talk to them about getting a different one than their default distinctive ring.

2 Set the HP all-in-one to answer incoming calls automatically.

Press the Auto Answer button until the light is on.

3 Change the Answer Ring Pattern setting to the pattern that has been assigned to your fax number by the telephone company, for example, double rings or triple rings.
For information on changing this setting, see Change the answer ring pattern
(distinctive ringing).
Note Your HP all-in-one is factory-set to answer all ring patterns. If you do not set the correct ring pattern assigned to your fax number by the telephone company, your HP all-in-one might answer both voice calls and fax calls or it might not answer at all.

4 (Optional) Change the Rings to Answer setting to one ring or two rings.

For information on changing this setting, see Set the number of rings before answering.
5 Run a fax test. For information, see Test your fax setup.
Your HP all-in-one will automatically answer incoming calls that have the ring pattern you selected (Answer Ring Pattern setting) after the number of rings you selected (Rings to Answer setting). Then it will begin emitting fax reception tones to the sending
fax machine and receive the fax.


If it is easier or you want to know other options which may be more applicable to your phone setup. You can find that information here.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00235090.pdf

I have a HP Officejet J6480 All-In-One and needed the answering machine and fax to be on at the same time.  I called the help line at HP and they said I needed another phone line into the home but I tried this and it worked. 
First I got a different phone number for the fax machine - they do this for no charge at my phone company. This is not another physical line into the home - it is just another phone number with a different ring - it rings 2 fast rings for the fax machine instead of the phones regular one ring. I set the answering machine built into the phone to pick up after 4 rings and I set the fax machine to pick up on 2 rings. Be sure to set it so the fax pick up number of rings are less than the answering machine pick up number of rings.  It worked for me. Hope this works for you too.

When you set your fax machine to answer on a certain number of rings it will answer it on that number of rings expecting it to be another fax machine. If you do not answer it before the aloted number of rings you will not be able to talk since the fax machine will be trying to talk in computer speak. To help you may want to set it to answer after more rings.

you have both the fax machine and the answering machine on the same phone line.
The fax machine and the answering machine are set to answer in a certain number of rings.
In your case the fax machine is set to answer the line in less rings than the answering machine. You have to increase the number of rings of your fax so that the answering machine will work.

• The Rings to Answer feature might not be set to answer after the
appropriate number of rings for your office setup.
• If you have a voice mail service at the same phone number you use
for fax calls, you must receive faxes manually, not automatically. For
information on how to receive faxes manually, see receive a fax
manually from a phone on page 48.
• If you have a PC modem on the same phone line with your
HP Officejet, check to make sure that the modem’s software is not
set to receive faxes automatically. Modems with this auto fax
receive feature turned on will take over the phone line to receive all
incoming faxes, which will prevent the HP Officejet from receiving
fax calls.
• If you have an answering machine on the same phone line with
your HP Officejet, you might have one of the following problems:
– Your outgoing message might be too long or too loud to allow
the HP Officejet to detect fax tones, and the calling fax machine
might disconnect.
– Your answering machine might not have enough quiet time after
your outgoing message to allow the HP Officejet to detect fax
tones. This problem is more common with digital answering
machines.
The following actions might help solve these problems:
a. Disconnect the answering machine and then try receiving a fax.
If faxing is successful without it, the answering machine might
be causing the problem.
b. Reconnect the answering machine and re-record your outgoing
message. Make sure the message is as short as possible (no
more than 10 seconds long), and that you speak softly and
slowly when recording it. Try again to receive a fax.
• If you have a special ring pattern for your fax phone number (using
a distinctive ring service through your telephone company), make
sure that the Answer Ring Pattern feature on your HP Officejet is set
to match. For example, if the phone company has assigned your
fax number a double ring pattern, make sure Double Rings is
selected as the Answer Ring Pattern setting. For information on
changing this setting, see change the answer ring pattern
(distinctive ringing) on page 63.
Note that some ring patterns cannot be recognized by the
HP Officejet, such as those with alternating short and long ringing
patterns. If you are having problems with a ring pattern of this type,
ask your phone company to assign a non-alternating ring pattern.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00095626.pdf

The Rings to Answer setting is important if you have an answering machine on the
same phone line as the HP All-in-One, because you want the answering machine to
answer the phone before the HP All-in-One does. The number of rings to answer for
the HP All-in-One should be greater than the number of rings to answer for the
answering machine.
For example, set your answering machine to a low number of rings and the HP All-in-
One to answer in the maximum number of rings. (The maximum number of rings
varies by country/region.) In this setup, the answering machine will answer the call
and the HP All-in-One will monitor the line. If the HP All-in-One detects fax tones, the
HP All-in-One will receive the fax. If the call is a voice call, the answering machine will
record the incoming message.
To set the number of rings before answering from the control panel
1. Press Setup.
2. Press 4, and then press 2.
This selects Basic Fax Setup and then selects Rings to Answer.
3. Enter the appropriate number of rings by using the keypad, or press or to
change the number of rings.
4. Press OK to accept the setting.