How to enable automatic redial for faxes?
Is there a way I can send a fax that will keep redialing until a fax machine picks up? I have a lot of customers that have faxes on their regular phone lines and it takes them numerous calls to turn on the fax. I need to have the fax keep resending until a fax machine picks up.
Although you didn’t say how what tool you’re using to send the fax (fax machine, fax modem, or an Internet faxing service) the answer is pretty much the same: you may be able to increase the number of times it tries to send a fax, but you almost certainly can’t set it to re-try forever.
One reason is abuse — intentional or accidental. With unlimited re-tries, you could accidentally put a voice number into your fax machine, which would keep dialing some poor grandma’s phone line every three minutes all night long.
When you’re sending a fax to someone who uses a single phone line for voice and fax, it’s best to place a voice call to them first to let them know a fax is on the way. This will save you both time and irritation. If you can’t do that, set your fax machine or fax modem software to the maximum number of re-tries. The procedure is different on each fax machine. On the HP 2710 multifunction fax machine, for instance, press the Setup button, then choose Advanced Fax Setup. There you’ll find two options: Busy Redial and No Answer Redial. When you turn these both on, the machine will re-try fax transmission a few times no matter why it failed. On some fax machines, you can also set the maximum number of retries.
Do you have a question about faxing? Send us your fax question.