[Gankdawg]

My old all-in-one printer (HP G85) was able to listen in when the phone rang and determine if a fax was coming in. Does Panther have that ability? If I set my answering machine to pickup after 4 rings and the same for Panther to receive faxes, all people here on the other end is the fax tone. If I set the fax software to receive after 5 rings, the machine just picks up and Panther doesn't pickup that a fax is coming in.

[TETENAL]

It's technically impossible to detect whether a phone call is voice of fax before picking up. And after picking up all Panther could do when it detects a voice call would be hang up. It can't send the call to the answering machine. That's technically impossible.

[Gankdawg]

Maybe my wording was poor. I know it's impossible to know before a call comes in whether or not it's voice or fax, but the HP software listened in when the answering machine picked up a call and if it heard fax tones, it would connect and receive a fax. Conversely, if it didn't hear fax tones, the person on the other end would just leave a message and never know a fax machine was listening in.

[TETENAL]

Really? That's possible?

I take everything back then.

[Gankdawg]

Originally posted by TETENAL:
Really? That's possible?

I take everything back then.

Yep, when you setup the HP software, it asked you a series of questions like "Do you have an answering machine on the same line as the fax?" and "Do you use the internet on the same line as the fax" and so forth. It then configured the machine based on your answers. It was the only part of their software that actually worked well with OS X.

Side note: the printing and scanning was so buggy that I finally bought a separate printer and scanner knowing that I could fax from Panther. Come to find out, receiving faxes isn't as easy as I thought.