Fax machine At&T assigned me a fax number for my use at home, but i don't know how to program my fax machine to pick up when there is a fax coming in. someone has to be home in order to recieve the fax, and you have to keep pressing the fax key to recieve the fax.

There is excellent support here on basic fax setups. You have what is known as "Distinctive Ringing Service". There are pros and cons to the various setups. I assume you recognize the rings and answer only when the ring for the landline talk comes on. The fax will pick up the faxes, and the answering machine will pick up the voice.

Need model number of your fax - google that!

Service manual for your phone.

http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/KXTG7841-MUL.PDF
This link shows various configurations of setting up your phone/fax/answering machine or using an answering service.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c00059780#Dist_ring
Distinctive Ringing Service setup While it is not available everywhere, a distinctive ringing service can be purchased from most telephone companies. With this service, more than one phone number is assigned to the same phone line. Each phone number will ring differently. The main number will ring with a normal single ring and the additional number will ring with a distinctive ring pattern assigned by the phone company.
When a distinctive ringing service is used, set the Rings to Answer to 2 and then follow the steps below to set the distinctive ringing pattern:

1. Press Setup , press 4 , and then press 1 to enter the Answer Ring Pattern setup of the Advanced Fax settings.
2. Use the Right Arrow to scroll through the available settings. When the ring pattern assigned by the phone company displays (double or triple rings), press OK .

You need to configure your fax machine to act the way you want it to. instructions will be in the owners mmanual ..

Please go through the following checklists:

• Make sure the that the fax line is working. To check, insert a telephone device straight to the fax line. You should get a dial tone.
• Make sure the telephone cord from the phone jack in the wall is plugged into the Line port on the back of your Lexmark printer.
• Assign the correct fax number on the printer.
• 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.

If these don't help, please contact Lexmark Technical Support Center for additional assistance.

Yes,
It is the phone number assigned to the phone line you plugged into the fax machine. You Fax machine is basically a Modem listening to the phone line. Someone dials and if they are sending a fax, the two machine's make squealing noises called a "handsake" then connect sends data.
It is then stored or printed or both.

If you pick up the phone while the two fax machines are connecting.
You will most likely disconnect the data transfer and get an ear full.

Hope this helps!

It means that your fax machine is "answering" the incoming call before you pick up the handset. Usually, the factory setting on the fax machine picks up after two incoming rings. There are three ways you can address this issue: 1.) You can either change the number of rings to, say, five incoming rings to give you enough time to answer the phone before the fax machine picks up, or 2,) you can find out if your fax machine has a feature that allows for the voice hook "click over" that will allow you to override the fax when you pick up your handset, or 3.) turn your fax machine off until you need to send a fax.

If you want to investigate number 2.), then you'll need your operator's manual.

Good luck.

It looks like you have a distinctive ring service from your phone company. Change the ring pattern of your fax to its assigned ring pattern (double or triple ring). It could be assigned to 'all rings' right now, that's why your fax is picking up your landline calls as well.

Goodluck!

You can set your fax machine to answer in 1-15 rings or you can set it to MANUAL so that to get a fax you will have to press START.

No fax machine can actually tell the diference between a phone call or a fax coming.in.

There are devices called fax/phone switches, but they are unreliable.

you can get the manual here: - LINK

Basically you plug your phone line into the fax machine line in and set the ring pick up to the desired length.

When someone calls you the fax should pick up and take the data.

I assume you have distinctive ringing since both numbers are on the same line. According to the manufacturer's specs, the fax machine supports distinctive ringing. Set it up for the ring pattern assigned to the fax number and to answer on the first ring. Then it will pick up right away when someone calls the fax machine, and the answering machine will pick up the other number.

Change your incoming mode from "autoswitching" to "TAM" (TAM is short for telephone answering machine" Press the "Setup" button on the control panel Use down arrow twice to select "FAX SETTINGS" Press the right arrow once The FAX SETTINGS menu appears Press the down arrow twice to select RECEPTION SETTINGS Press the right arrow once Press the down arrow unit INCOMING MODE appears in display Press the right arrow once Press the down arrow until TAM appears in display Press the right arrow once. That should do it for you If I got lost somewhere, it is in your Operator's manual - look in the index for TAM Hope it helped Ed