Excuse my ignorance but can you just get a double phone socket connection piece and plug a fax machine into the same line as your phone or do you need a different phoneline altogether?

You can just get a dobule socket and it will work in tandem with your landline.

Thanks Frazzel - so if someone's phoning then will the fax machine ring too or will that only ring if it's a fax coming through? Is it best to use the fax machine as both the phone and fax maybe?

I'm just thinking my phone has an answer machine built in which I like to use but if both phone and fax are going to ring every time I get a phonecall it'd drive me mad! As I say I don't want to get an additional number, I just want the one line.

Yes you can (typically about £1-£2), but depending on your fax set up, it can cause problems (e.g. the fax answers before you do, or you answer the phone and get a fax tone because someone is trying to fax you) Even bigger problems if you have an answerphone connected.

You used to be able to get a device called a fax-friend produced by Avro-Pacific that used to auto switch if required on answerphone, or allowed you to manually switch if you inadvertantly picked up a fax call.

Unfortunately Avro-Pacific went out of business some time ago and I don't know of any similar products. You can still find the fax friend by googling, but of course you won't get any support in case of difficulties.

It will ring if you get a fax or a phone call. If you get a fax it should jsut go straight through after a couple of rings but depends on your model. Have a look for the company website for details who make it.

You can use it for both fax and phone as would be much better than having two phones stuck on the one socket.

Thanks guys, I think the one I might go for is a Brother one which says it has the option of having a separate phone/answermachine as well as the fax machine on the same line and if it's not a fax coming through you can set it so it's just the phone that'll take the call so it must be like an autoswitch function like you describe Dawson switching to either the fax phone or another phone you have connected - that's what it says in the specification anyway.

Fingers crossed I'll be able to set it all up to do that - there goes another 5 hours of my life.

You could subscribe to Call Sign a BT distinctive ringing service and also try and find a BT TwinTalk Line Sharer, this you could use so the fax machine has its own incoming number.

Why not just use one of the many fax to email services for incoming? It will save the waste of paper on spam faxes and will give you a separate fax phone number for people to use.

That's what I use, have have done so for many years.

I'm not going to be using it often but still need one, I thought about one of the more modern one's you can connect to a pc but have decided just to keep it simple, I had one yonks ago and thought everyone did everything by e-mail these days but obviously not! Thanks anyway.

Thanks too Smegbot for that info which I'll look into.

If you opt for call sign, you can get a device that automatically switches between handsets (or handset & fax in this instance) depending on number dialled, and hence the ringing noise.

Saw these in The Link.

Just out of curiosity, how much does it cost to send a fax? Is it the same price as a phonecall?

If it's from your fax machine, yes it's the same price as a voice call of the same duration.

That's exactly what I posted a few posts above in #7.

Yes, it's the same price of a voice phone call, because all a fax machine does is it makes a voice phone call and within the voice segment scream at each other.

Which is the reason I'm getting one as if people don't want to use e-mail and want a hard copy of an A4 size document then it'll be cheaper to fax it through rather than post it to them plus it's more immediate.

btw, it was late and I was tired when I wrote my last post and now realise I'd read your name wrong SmegSnot, lol - soz

Thanks for the help and info.