Enable a Fax Device to Receive

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

You must specifically enable a fax device to receive—it is not enabled by default. A fax device can be configured to answer incoming calls automatically or manually. The manual option is useful if your fax and telephone share the same incoming line.

As part of this process, you can also specify an optional Called Subscriber ID (CSID) string, a text string used to identify a fax recipient to a fax sender.

To enable a fax device to receive

  1. Open Fax Service Manager.

  2. In the left pane, double-click Fax, double-click Devices and Providers, and then click Devices.

  3. In the right pane, right-click the device you want to configure, and then do one of the following:

    • Click Automatic Answer to enable the fax device to answer calls automatically, and then type a number for the value in Rings before answering <placeholder>. The default number of rings is one (1).

    • Click Manual Answer to enable the fax device to answer calls manually.

  4. To configure a CSID, right-click the device you want to configure, and then click Properties.

  5. On the General tab, in Called Subscriber ID (CSID), type a CSID string. This string is limited to 20 characters.

Additional considerations

To configure fax components, you must be a member of the Administrators group or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.

Additional references