Voyager
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3 Messages
Fax setup with Uverse not working
When I try to send a Fax I get a message that "An active phone line cannot be detected." I have Uverse with TV, voice, voice mail and high-speed internet. I can browse and copy, and printing are working. I have a HP C410a All-in-One machine. I suspect that my devices are connected incorrectly.
I have read about setups with various combinations of devices, but nothing I have read or seen starts with Uverse provided like mine. I have a coaxial cable connection at the wall currently going to the Gateway. There are two other connections in the wall. Each looks like a typical phone jack. A green 4-wire cable is now connected to one of those jacks and at the other end it connects to the Gateway at "phone line". A second cable labeled as an "ethernet cable" is connected between the second wall jack and an ethernet connection at the PC. These connections were set this way by an AT&T installer about a year ago and things were working until a couple weeks ago. Just before the current problems began, I was reinstalling Office and trying to cure a problem with Outlook. I don't how or why I would have changed the connections at that time, but who knows?
I will describe the other current connections between the devices if desired, but thought a person first needs to know what I have providing the Uverse service. I have not seen any examples at att.net or at the HP site for connecting to Uverse thru "1 coaxial + 2 jacks". I contacted AT&T regular support and ConnecTech Plus, buit they were no help.
I will appreciate your help. Thanks
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
aviewer
Expert
•
10.1K Messages
11 years ago
When that works, you can substitute any other connecting cords you may have to be sure they work. The reason is to make sure they are not broken and - I have seen posts where some FAXs have special cords that reveres the two lines on the cord. I do not know why they would do that, but if you have only one line it does not work.
Once you know that the gateway, the fax & the cord are good, you can plug the cord from the phone jack on gateway into the wall jack that is connected to the rest of the jacks in the house. If any do not work you have to check the connections at the jack & wherever they are connected together.
Let me know how you make out.
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tomddg
Voyager
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3 Messages
11 years ago
aviewer - Thank you for your reply. I plugged a live phone line into the Fax and it worked. Hooray! I sent an important Fax that I needed to get out. I have not tried to complete the setup to tie everything together. Instead, I decided that it's about time that I install the wireless feature that came with the Fax and then to set it up with the wireless Fax.
I remain curious about the unusual way that Uverse is delivered to me, the "coax + 2 other cables" that I described before. I'm concerned that I will be baffled again (well, actually that's pretty likely in spite of this situation) when adding or changing any devices because I don't find descriptions or diagrams for using the "coax + 2 other cables" in support materials. Are you familiar with that or have any possible reference for me? If I cannot find it in common support materials, I think I'm going to try to get AT&T to change that Uverse installation to one that is in the common references, AT&T and others.
Thanks again for your help. At least I can send and recieve Faxes when I need to.
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aviewer
Expert
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10.1K Messages
11 years ago
I am thinking you have a standard install. The problem is U-verse is designed to be very flexible in order to reuse as much as possible of the cabling already in your house.
If you have any experience with DSL you know that DSL was added to POTS in away that all wiring could easily be reused. Think of U-verse as having the same objective (reuse) but is much more complicated in both service and wiring, and the U-verse signal and analog phone must be kept separate.
You can find diagrams on the att site. But, they apply to only one case. In the field there are multiple cases and overlapping cases. It is impossible to have enough diagrams to cover every case, Better to think in a couple of possible basic scenarios & apply them to the full scope found in each dwelling.
Basic service enters the house at the NID (Network Interface Device) -gray box on the side of the house. If POTS is retained they (POTS & u-verse) come in on separate wiring. POTS uses the tel wires.
U-verse could use different tel wires (or existing if POTS is not retained), cat5/6 wires or COAX. This is connected directly to the RG (modem). Unless is is desired to use COAX for TVs and the splitter is not near the RG. In that case a diplexer allows the COAX to be used bidirectionally between the RG and the splitter.
U-verse services are fed from the RG.
U-verse voice is fed analog from the phone jack. It may be distributed throughout the house by tel cable, or other wires inside the feed tel cable or normal wireless phones ( preferably 6.0 DECT)
The internet service may be distributed wi-fi (2.4), or cat5/6 or COAX.
The video may be distributed WAP (5,8 wi-fi) to two receivers (STB) or cat5 or COAX to up to eight receivers including the DVR.
All distribution methods can co-exist.
If we consider FTTH (fiber to the home), Pair bonding (INID) for long distance from the VRAD and the various different RGs it gets complicated.
In your case it appears that the green data cable is the feed from the NID to the RG. You say PC, but mean RG??
The COAX cable feeds some TVs.
And, the cable in the phone jack feeds dial tone to the house tel wiring.
You say your fax is an all in one & you used it as a FAX & want to hook it up wireless. When you do that you will be connecting to the wi-fi network that your computers use. You will be able to scan in and print out as if it were wired to the computer network. You may be able to manage & communicate fax data between the all-in -one and the computer. You will not be able to transmit a fax over the internet. FAXs are transmitted over the tel wire. So, you will still need the tel connection to send/rcv a fax, unless you are using an internet fax server, in which case you do not need the FAX function of your all-in-one. Just to clarify that.
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