How do I set up a phone, answering machine, and fax on the same line?

Question

I have a phone, answering machine, and a fax machine. But, I only have one phone number. I currently have the answering machine connected to a wall jack, and the phone connected to the answering machine. On another wall jack, I have the fax machine. THe problem is, when someone calls, the phone rings 4 times, and then the answering machine kicks in. But, at the same time, the fax kicks in. SO, over our answering machine message, there is a dialtone that the caller hears and it's confusing. Not to mention that our fax beeps when it's on, so, in the middle of our answering mahine message, the caller hears a beep and a lot of people think that they are supposed to start leaving a message. and then, when the actual answering machine beep happens, they get confused and start over. THen, about 10 seconds later, our fax beeps again, and most people start over again. IT's really confusing for the caller. Ideally, we would have the phone kick in first, then the anwering machine, and then, much later, the fax machine. Or, just something so that no two things happen at the same time, so the beeps don't get confusing. We have 2 wall jacks available, what is the proper confuguration for these 3 machines?

thanks

Answer 1

you can't. You need to hook the phone and answering machine in, and disconenct when you need to make a fax. The two will not work together on the same phone line. OR assuming you have DSL (i dont know if u do or not, but this will only work with dsl) Hook fax to phone line, hook computer to phone line with dsl adapter and use vonage, or yahoo, or Microsoft live for phone service (on yahoo, and live, u need the messenger for this to work) Or you could try, this is a theroem, i have not tested this and dont know if it will work, get dsl, hook phone to phone side of adapter, fax to dsl side, and comp, to dsl side on diff outlet. hope this helps.