Printer Canono MX490 fax setup issue

groze · 15 Feb 2017

If you have only one phone number, the phone and fax machine cannot be plugged into different wall jacks.

This quote was from there fax instructions. However, that won't for two reasons.

One is I have another extension non cordless phone in house.
Two the phone I am using said do not hook up to a fax, the cordless phone won't work.

I guess the only choice is two hook it up as a fax only line, when I need to fax plug the phone line in.

Does anyone else have any other ideas?

Also, It is showing off hook. When connected to the phone line. I can still use the computer fax if needed but it will just be a lot harder. I am going to try hooking my cordless phone to the extension & see if that fixes the issues or if its because I have more extension phone.

Update

The phone did ring. Fax still shows off hook.

Ranger4 · 15 Feb 2017

If you only have one phone line in, then you will have to disconnect the phone if you want to use the fax & vice versa. If you leave them both connected with a double adapter, the fax will cut in & answer, probably just a you pick up the receiver to answer & you will get all that screeching coming from the fax as it tries to establish a fax connection.

It is irritating but I have to do the same thing, although these days faxes are very seldom used, as most use email instead.

groze · 15 Feb 2017

Ranger4 said:

If you only have one phone line in, then you will have to disconnect the phone if you want to use the fax & vice versa. If you leave them both connected with a double adapter, the fax will cut in & answer, probably just a you pick up the receiver to answer & you will get all that screeching coming from the fax as it tries to establish a fax connection.

It is irritating but I have to do the same thing, although these days faxes are very seldom used, as most use email instead.

Thank you Ranger.

I am still having trouble sending & receiving faxes. I don't have to worry about the offhook message now figured that out. I really didn't get the printer for the fax. I got because it still works windows 7 & surprisingly it works with Linux mint 18.1 xfce. It was on sell for a decent price. I use the printer & scanner feature more. I usually go to an local office store or grocery store to fax, when needed.

I will try you idea of setting it to fax only & testing it out. It still may be an issue. I think it gets confused because of the at&t dial tone. The dial tone is off. I think there is a setting to fix that but I will study the instructions more closely before I change it. The error I am getting is incomplete transmission.

The only other issues I find annoying is the status message provide by canon when you unplug the printer & when you do a print job. It still prints & scans fine. Also, there is no easy setting to turn off sending or receiving in color.

DavidE · 15 Feb 2017

I've got an HP printer/scanner/fax machine.
The fax can be setup to work with a single phone line / answering machine.
My settings are specific to my HP printer, so i can't help with the Canon setup.

Here's an article that might help you with testing your fax setup:
HP Fax Products - Testing Your HP Fax Machine with the HP Fax Test Service | HP(R) Customer Support

It's an HP article and phone number, but maybe it can be used with other manufacturer printers/fax.
It might depend on the fax (return) phone number in the header.
I can send a fax to the phone number, and a few minutes later it will call back and try to send me a fax confirmation.
For me, it makes it easier to setup/test a HP fax machine.
I don't know if Canon has a test facility like this.

groze · 16 Feb 2017

Thank you both.

I finally got it to work but not they way I like. Cannon does have a text fax number. Here is how I got it to work.

Factory reset of fax
Unplugged printer
Redo fax setup
Setup the printer as fax only.
Unplug all phones one the line.
Plug in the Canon fax machine phone line connection

Then called the Canon text number. It did call back.

Also, I did used another free web based tax service to send me a test fax & it worked.

What I can't figure is when I had the phone connected to the printer, set it to share phone/fax line. It wouldn't send or receive a fax very odd or caused incomplete transmission. I could of done something wrong though.