Does this sound like a phone company problem? (Verizon, Boston 'burbs)

Destinctive Ring / Ringmate used for fax has been unreliable for me.
It works half the time, but the other half it picks up on my primary
ring. This means that important calls get screeched.

My first DS (double ring) is my fax number, I've tried the following:

- Old OfficeJet, with DS built in; (yeah, but it was free ;^)
- Astra Ring Selector switch;
- Windows2000, WinFax Pro 10.2, and Global Village Teleport 56 modem.

In Win2K, since it doesn't support DS, I've edited the registry and
changed "RING" to "RING B" in the key that controls picking up the
phone. I set S041 to 001 so it sends RING A, RING B, RING C... to
Windows.

Since each of these setups has been roughly as unreliable as the
other, I'm beginning to belive that Verizon is occasionally sending a
single ring on the first ring of my DS (which should be double).
I just thought I'd post before I call Verizon and accuse them of this.

Another option (which I planning today) is to move my fax # to the
second DS # and see if that improves things.

Of course, other options are to buy a new fax machine, or use a
fax-by-email service (which I'm seriously considering at this point.)

Has anybody else experienced similar behavior with DS and Fax?
Any suggestions?

Thanks
Jaz
(Please excuse the 'burp' when replying)

Distinctive Ring is not supported by Windows XP. Therefore, Windows XP Fax
will answer every incoming call it receives. The alternative is to install
an external switching device to your phone line. As a matter of fact none of
Windows 2000 Fax, SBS 2000 Fax, Windows Server 2003 Fax, SBS 2003 Fax
support distinctive ringing feature.


--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for newsgroup
purposes only.

"Jaz" <harbell@beerburp.com> wrote in message
news:fu5a10hadlpnlbtaqt14e81d11452qk63h@4ax.com...

Can't you just add an -SDR=1 (or 2 or 3 etc) to your modem init string?
If your modem supports Distinctive Rings, then your can set it to only
listen for a certain ring. Generally it will report it as RING1 or RING2
etc when you give it a AT-SDR=2 command. Find your modem init string for
the prog you are using - and add -SDR=n to it (where n is a ring pattern
number).
Generally the software you are using will see the RING and ignore the
number on the end...
YMMV, as i'm using a Mac and Linux.

--Mangee


On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 14:11:55 GMT, Jaz <harbell@beerburp.com> wrote:
--
Mangee (at mangee dot net dot nz)
Did you miss it?
See the playback at http://webcam.mangee.net.nz/overview.html

"Raghavendra R [MSFT]" <raghavr@online.microsoft.com> forgot to take
the pills and typed:

Ralph. You didn't really to heart the part where I stated "In Win2K,
since it doesn't support DS, I've edited the registry and... "
Likewise, you suggested using an inline ring detecting switch... You
mean like the Astra Ring Selector I mentioned? I guess you didn't read
my original post.

Mangee <mangee@net.nz> forgot to take the pills and typed:
Mangee -- Know what -SDR= ? That doesn't sound like a modem register.
Register S041 is commonly used to select the DS pattern, as is the
case for my modem. And as I stated, I set S041=001, which is the first
DS ring. And as I said, this mostly works, but sometimes not, and I
suspect this may be due to an occasional single ring comming through
on my DS number. E.g., sloppy telecomm designimplentation by my local
phone company, possibly due to a push to rapidly expand services, and
they may have defined their standards in such a way that it is
acceptable to occasionally let a single ring slip by on the first ring
of a DS connection.

Does anybody have any experience that may help me with this? Please
note that I've already set my modem to answer on DS, and hand built DS
support into Windows (as I outlined in my original post), and find it
works, but it's unreliable. And again, I see no reason that this would
be due to my setup. So I'm looking for experiences from others using
this technique, to see if they've had similar results.

Thanks for your responses.
(Please excuse the 'burp' when replying)

Jaz,

One idea that you may not have tried: since you seem to have a problem
occasionally with the "first ring", try setting the modem to only answer
after, say, 2 or 3 rings (can't remember the S-register offhand). The idea
being that if the first ring _is_ dodgy, at least the subsequent rings
should be clean.

Regards,
Andre

"Jaz" <harbell@beerburp.com> wrote in message
news:i1ct10tvdg80bdk421q60cnuo9brtjirso@4ax.com...

"Andre Pekelaar" <andre@nowhere.none> forgot to take the pills and
typed:
Andre,

Thanks, I'm having a lot of trouble with this.

It seems like I can't prevent WinFax from resetting my modem, or
customizing the commands it sends. I'm using ver. 10.2 (latest)

I've manually set S0=3 (pickup on 3rd ring) and S41=1 (distinguish
ring type and send "RING A", "RING B", etc);
AND I've set WinFax to automatically pick up, on the third ring;

BUT, WinFax still answers on the first ring. ?!?!?!

AND, when I exit WinFax controller, and reconnect to modem using
terminal program, S0 and S41 are reset to 000

I'm using Windows 2000 'Phones & Modems' control panel to send 'extra
initialization commands' -->> S0=3;S41=1

With WinFax disabled thess settings hold thru a reboot. Good.
(but geez Symantec, you've installed an NT servive AND a shortcut in
Programs/Startup -- duh!)

So I'm at a loss why with WinFax set to pickup on the third ring, it
picks up on the first. And why can't I adjust WinFax's init string.

Any advice? Have I missed something obvious?
Thanks
Jaz
(Please excuse the 'burp' when replying)

Jaz <harbell@beerburp.com> forgot to take the pills and typed:
I didn't look hard enough -- WinFax's modem properties has a FAX page
where I put my S0 and S41 init strings. That seems to have worked.

:^)
(Please excuse the 'burp' when replying)