5 Alternatives to Keeping a Fax Machine
Posted by jpluimers on 2010/01/14
Like Thursday Bram, I can’t remember the last time I sent a FAX.
I still have a FAX: it is a multifunctional HP Color LaserJet 2840.
It was one of my biggest mistakes, see at the end of this blog article why.
Back to faxing: unlike Tursday, I live in The Netherlands, so I’ll explain how my FAX stuff works.
- I receive FAXes through FaxMail in e-mail (Dutch link) which requires a free KPN account and an e-mail address.
- Incoming FAXes end up as multi-page TIFF images in your e-mailbox.
- My mailbox is Google mail, and it has a built in multi-page TIFF viewer (which now works again!).
- The gmail multi-page TIFF is handy, because the built-in TIFF viewer in the OS-es I use changes more often than bacteria generations grow.
I use ISDN as it operates very nicely with DECT, I love having the choice of the incoming phone numbers landing at the same hardware, and caller ID works much nicer than with POTS.
FAX machines are analog (like POTS is), and ISDN is digital, so here is how the everything is wered up to send FAXes.
- My multifunctional hooks up to a KPN DuoVox which basically is the OEM version of a TELES iTA/2AB.
- The DuoVox connects to the ISDN NT1 which is where KPN terminates the ISDN connection in my building.
- From there it goes over ISDN to the phone network of KPN.
So contrary to Thursday, I do use a FAX machine.
Here is his list of doing without one: 5 Alternatives to Keeping a Fax Machine.
Back to why – in retrospect – the HP Color LaserJet 2840 is a disaster:
- There are no 2840 printer drivers beyond Windows XP.
Well, the HP Universal Drivers are supposed to be, but they keep recognize the 2840 as a monochrome printer (I tried many versions, all do the same), which is odd as it is a color one. - The 2840 XP printer drivers switch from A4 to Letter every now and then.
When that happens, you cannot remotely press “continue” on the printer (my HP 9500 HDN can!). - It does calibration at will, and when it does, it is offline for a long time. When it calibrates during FAXing or scanning, it often screws up the FAX or scan process (so far for a multifunctional…).
- Every now and then, the 2840 just hangs when processing a print job. It is intermittent, does not have to do with job volume. It just… hangs.
Hanging requires a reboot of the 2840, and resending all the print jobs you sent to it. - Unlike my really old HP ScanJet 4C, there are no 2840 scanner drivers beyond Windows XP.
HP loves support of their newer products. - The scanner software in XP hardly works when it connects through the network to the 2840.
- When the 2840 is connected over USB, and you have multiple pages to scan, the scanner software usually hangs after a couple of pages or a couple of jobs.
Sometimes it even hangs on the first page of the first job.
A hang mostly requires a reboot of both the 2840 and the PC.
So I’m very glad that I have found this scanner and printer combo to work, even in Vista and beyond:
- Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 scanner.
Briljant device. Scans double sided. Automatically detects if the back-side is used (otherwise just scans the front side). Automagically generates PDF’s with the page sizes used in the original. Is FAST. Scans to Word or Excel if needed. Supports Vista and Windows 7 if you want to. - HP ScanJet 4600.
For the occasional scanning of things the S510 does not eat (like books or larger photos). See through, so you see what you scan. Reasonable quality. Support for XP and Vista (but no Windows 7). - HP Color LaserJet 9500 HDN.
Great device. Eats all sorts of paper. Prints double sided on all paper I tried. Great print quality.
Two drawbacks: start time is slow, and manual feed in tray 1 does not work (never did, I bought it 2nd hand).
So I use that combination, and the 2840 only when I need a quick B&W print from Vista and up, or a quick color print for XP. No more scanning. Sometimes a photocopy. Oh, and the very occasional sending of a FAX :-)
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Leave a comment