[Anonymous]

Hi, Can anyone tell me why the settings to use distinctive ring are greyed out in WinFax Pro. The check box’s are inactive when I go into settingsReceiveAdvanced.
I have used Hyper Terminal to check that my modem supports distinctive ring and it does!
I am running Windows XP Pro with SP2 and WinFax Pro 10.02
Any help would be much appreciated. [email protected]

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, Windows XP and WinFax do not support distinctive ring. Here is info from Symantec on this:

If distinctive ring is unavailable or the option is dimmed, make sure that all the following requirements have been met:

You are configuring this on either Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me. Distinctive Ring is not supported by Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.
The modem is configured in WinFax to use TAPI and not a COM port.
The modem is installed with the latest operating system-specific driver.

[Anonymous]

Do I understand correctly? Distinctive Ring is not supported in Windows XP?
If this is the case how do you cope with incoming calls as WinFax will answer every call?

[Anonymous]

@gadgetman496 wrote:

Do I understand correctly? Distinctive Ring is not supported in Windows XP?
If this is the case how do you cope with incoming calls as WinFax will answer every call?

There are hardware devices that can route the call to the proper device. Most are known as “Com switches”
here is a link to one manufacturer but there are many types you can buy at various price ranges

http://www.command-comm.com/cs7500.html

[Anonymous]

@gadgetman496 wrote:

Do I understand correctly? Distinctive Ring is not supported in Windows XP?
If this is the case how do you cope with incoming calls as WinFax will answer every call?

http://modemsite.com/56k/dringxp.asp

and from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;272943

Edited By Moderator on June 14 2005 at 12:43

[Anonymous]

I must be losing the plot here!
Does anyone know why Microsoft have removed the Distinctive Ring support in Windows XP and 2000?
What is their logic behind that?
For Christ sake they have posted a recommended fix on their site suggesting users to revert back to Windows 98 SE or ME in order to fix the problem!!!
“Hello? Am I on the same planet as everyone else or what?”

[Anonymous]

@gadgetman496 wrote:

I must be losing the plot here!
Does anyone know why Microsoft have removed the Distinctive Ring support in Windows XP and 2000?
What is their logic behind that?
For Christ sake they have posted a recommended fix on their site suggesting users to revert back to Windows 98 SE or ME in order to fix the problem!!!
“Hello? Am I on the same planet as everyone else or what?”

It doesn’t make any sense. I guess Distinctive Ring isn’t too popular, and most people really don’t care about it for Microsoft to do anything about it. Its not like Windows XP or 2000 can’t support it.

There is a “partial” solution in the article listed on ModemSite. You might want to try the suggestions on there to enable distinctive ring for a specific ring pattern.

[Anonymous]

You must be right when you say Distinctive Ring isn’t too popular.

Right now my modem wants to answer every call be it a fax or voice so I changed the number of rings to 5 which allows me time to answer the phone. Of course this is only a joke as it doesn’t really fix anything because I have to be there to answer the call before the 5th ring or the modem will take it and even if I do answer before the 5th ring it could actually be a fax call…

I still don’t know how other users are dealing with this but if you are using XP there is absolutely no advantage in having this software to handle your fax needs. In fact it is really causing unnecessary problems.

To make matters even more annoying, I spoke with our phone line providers and they were about as useful as Symantec themselves. Just to top it all off none of the computer outlets in this country that I have contacted have even heard of a COM switch for use with distinctive ring. Most tried to sell me a manual switch box for sharing printers. I am starting to think that this is a total windup I am even looking around here to see if there is a hidden camera…

[Anonymous]

@gadgetman496 wrote:

You must be right when you say Distinctive Ring isn’t too popular.

Right now my modem wants to answer every call be it a fax or voice so I changed the number of rings to 5 which allows me time to answer the phone. Of course this is only a joke as it doesn’t really fix anything because I have to be there to answer the call before the 5th ring or the modem will take it and even if I do answer before the 5th ring it could actually be a fax call…

I still don’t know how other users are dealing with this but if you are using XP there is absolutely no advantage in having this software to handle your fax needs. In fact it is really causing unnecessary problems.

To make matters even more annoying, I spoke with our phone line providers and they were about as useful as Symantec themselves. Just to top it all off none of the computer outlets in this country that I have contacted have even heard of a COM switch for use with distinctive ring. Most tried to sell me a manual switch box for sharing printers. I am starting to think that this is a total windup I am even looking around here to see if there is a hidden camera…

Here are some links on eBay for ComSwitch’s
http://search.ebay.com/comswitch_W0QQsojsZ1QQfromZR40

ComSwitch is a brand name, so maybe asking for a “automatic telephone switch” might get some response. Since you’re not in North America, you probably will have a difficult time finding this product. They may have not made a compatible version for overseas. Maybe try the manufacturer to see if they even have a version for the European market?

You might have to try electronic dealers, or those specializing in business telephones.

Another solution is to use TalkWorks PRO 3.0 (a discontinued product by Symantec/Delrina)

It will answer all calls, you can set it to answer in 5 rings (or whatever you like). If someone calls and you answer, it will still listen to see if the call is a fax. If it is a fax, it will switch to fax mode and then you hang up the line and receive the fax. If it is a voice call, it simply hangs up and you continue with your conversation. If you don’t answer the call, it will answer as voice mail (providing the caller is not a fax) If it detects a fax tone, it will answer with a fax tone. All on the same phone line.

To make this work, you need a compatible fax/voice modem.
TalkWorks PRO 3.0 has the same features as WinFax PRO 9.03. So it is an older version of WinFax, but seems to work OK under Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Edited By Moderator on June 17 2005 at 11:17

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