Receiving Faxes > Overview

Receiving Faxes with Snappy Fax

All that is required to receive faxes with snappy fax is to start fax receive mode. When fax receive mode is started, snappy fax will put the fax modem into answer mode. The modem will patiently wait for a ring signal to occur on the phone line that it is connected to. Note that if you modem is not connected properly to the wall jack, it will not be able to detect the ring signal.

If you have an internal modem, then it likely has two jacks, one marked 'Line' and one marked 'Phone'. You should connect the 'Line' jack on the modem to the wall jack. The 'Phone' jack on the modem can be used to connect a telephone set to the modem.

Note that when fax receive mode is on, the modem will answer all incoming calls. It has no way of knowing whether the incoming call is a fax call or a voice call. If you need the ability to accept only fax calls with the modem then you will need a fax switch. A fax switch is a hardware device, much like an answering machine. It is connected to the wall jack and then the telephone and modem both are connected to the fax switch. The fax switch will pre-answer the call and determine if it is a fax or voice call. If a fax call, it will then 'ring' the modem line, if a voice call, it will 'ring' the telephone line. Fax switches are sold on the internet and in most local electronics stores.

If you have a distinctive ring service on your phone line then you can configure snappy fax to support distinctive ring. Distinctive ring service is offered by most phone providers and only costs a few dollars per month. If you telco offers this service, you can avoid purchasing a fax switch and configure snappy fax to only answer the distinctive ring line.

To start fax receive mode with snappy fax, click the 'Fax receive mode' button on the 'Fax Home' ribbon tab or the 'fax receive mode' button on the quick bar. Note that these buttons are 'sticky' buttons. When the button is in a down state, fax receive mode is on. When in this state, click the button again to return the button to the up state and turn fax receive mode off. The hint for these two buttons will change the reflect the current state of fax receive mode.

If you want snappy fax to always start fax receive mode when it is started, you can set that option in the modem configuration settings in snappy fax.