Windows Vista forum: fax software compatible with Vista Home Premium?

How can you run fax software from a digital line? It can't be done.

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com (xxxxxxxx@hotmail.com)
Date: Thursday, April 19, 2007 11:33 PM
To: CS (xxxxxxxx@microsoft.com)
Subject: Vista Home Edition


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CUSTOMER PROVIDED SYSTEM PROPERTIES
Country/Region: United States
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QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Message:

I sold my Microsoft Stock today. I purchased a new computer with Vista installed and I discovered you were too cheap to include a fax printer driver. As you know this was standard on the last versions of Windows until Vista. Have you heard the old saying you make someone happy they tell one or two people, but when you make them angry they tell one hundred. I think you should include the fax printer driver as a free update or your going to have trouble selling your new product.


David F. Jesse,M.D.


Microsoft Responce:

Hello David,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.

I understand you are suggesting that Microsoft Windows Vista should include a free fax printer driver update.

I have forwarded your mail to the appropriate Microsoft contacts for further review.

We take our customers' feedback very seriously. We appreciate you taking the time to forward your thoughts to us.

Continue to send us your feedback and suggestions; your comments help us to provide the most useful experience possible.

If you have other concerns, please feel free to send us another e-mail.

Thank you,

Cherlene
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

If you have any feedback about your Online Customer Service experience, please send them to my manager, Farrah Cocson at https://support.microsoft.com/common/survey.aspx?scid=sw;en;1390&showpage=1&WS=managermail Please do not forget to indicate the name of my manager in the subject field.




I suggest as many people email them as possible so they know our feelings!

Message was edited by: admin to remove personal e-mail address

Sounds like this user really hates Vista. Well, it has its pros and its cons, but the Ultimate version does have Windows Fax and Scan, which, if not as nice as WinFax, does work. There are also FaxTalk and Snappy Fax and many other fax programs on the market, but they don't let you choose your data folder. As for the blue screens of death and auto reboot, this user needs to do a thorough scan of his or her computer with sfc /scannow in a command-prompt CMD windows run as an Administator, and also with jv16 Powet Tools, and with some very good anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-tootkit software. Hope this helps, although some people remain bitter no matter what.

I have just downloaded Snappy Fax on my new Vista machine and it works like a dream. Thanks for the advice.

your a star, it works perfect

Microsoft seems to have misjudged their market on this one.

I had mostly been using the BVRP phone tools that came with my computer. The real problem for me was not that MS had removed its fax support, but that it was hard to find any reasonable third party fax software, including BVRP, that would run under Vista.

The solution I'm using is an old fax service account I signed up for years ago at maxemail.com because it was cheap and looked useful,although I used it only rarely. I see that they are currently charging $24 per year (plus 0.05 cents per 30 seconds of connect time per fax for sending a fax). The account also comes with an individually assigned telephone number for receiving faxes and having them sent to you by email as pdf attachments. Faxes can be sent by uploading the file (pdf or doc or tiff other format) over the web or by email with the files attached.

There are other operations that provide similar services, but the others I looked at were much more expensive, charging about as much per month as they charged per year.

I have been studying all this and am still looking at moving to Vista Ultimate. However, I have a Multitech MT5634ZPX-PCI-U V92 modem that is Super G3 capable (33.6 kbps V.34 faxing). I have been totally unable to find out if Windows Fax & Scan, the new fax component in Vista Ultimate, supports Super G3. The modem manufacturer doesn't know and my answer from Microsoft (after 4 appeals) was to try it out and see if it works.

I have been using BVRP ePhone Tools 4.01 even though I have a licence for BVRP Phone Tools eXPert 4. Both programs support Super G3. ePhone Tools supports greyscale logos using the Logo Management feature but that feature was mysteriously dropped with Phone Tools eXPert. I was very disheartened to learn that Avanquest has dropped Phone Tools. There are MILLIONS of Winfax users around the world who are searching for a workable program that would import from Winfax and will support Vista. What Avanquest actually did was to drop the ball..a major marketing error in judgement. Ther is no question that the premium Phone Tools software was the best fax software going. I find the other fax programs like Snappy Fax rather clunky. I am waiting to see whether FaxTalk will be updated to support Vista. I believe it is the best of the remaining third party programs.

Is there another reader out there who has a Super G3 capable modem and has Vista Ultimate, Business, or Enterprise who can tell me if Microsoft Fax & Scan supports Super G3?

I have heard from Multitech that they have new drivers that are Vista compatible. I believe the reason why it shows up as incompatible is because the drivers are unsigned and not certified.

I tried further after reading your post. I see that BVRP can really work well enough, just not the way it was intended, at least thus far on my own computer.

What won't install or work under Vista on my computer is the Fax Printer (the "BVRP Fax Capture" in the printer list), so that it refuses to allow sending the content of a pdf or word file as a fax by feeding the document directly into phone tools. But it will successfully append and send a tiff file as a fax - so all it takes is using the MS Image Writer in Word or to else Acrobat to save a tiff file and send that.

Visit this link for a BVRP Phone Tools that run on Vista http://www.usr.com/bvrp/bvrp.asp?loc=unkg

I've written to a company, RKS Software, who has been working on compatible fax software. Their reply stated they have had difficulty with it and IF they can make it compatible, they will sell it for $19.95 only if enough people will buy it. In order for me to upgrade from Premium, I'd have to buy a new computer! An article I read in Business Week stated many people are switching to Linux or MAC's. I would have had my old computer not completely crashed, including my CD ROM drive.

Just want to let you know that if you have a digital system (i.e., VoIP), fax software will not work. A fax uses an analog line to transmit while VoIP uses a digital line. As far as I know, there is no way to transmit faxes over a digital line. You need to have an analog line connected to your computer for this feature to operate correctly. My system uses a digital line (for VoIP) but I also have a secondary phone line(analog)that allows me to send faxes.

I have vonage also and used to have xp pro. Upgraded to vista ultimate now now more fax, or scanner or printer. Bought a canon mp830 multi and it works. I like to save incoming and outgoing faxes in special folders for safety reasons. I found a few cards online that are supposed to be vista compatible. Here are a few of the cards.
PCI-RAS Multi-modem card http://www.perle.com/products/techspecs/Multimodem-Cards-techspecs.shtml

Super Fast V.92 56k PCI Bus Internal Modem, Lucent Chipset, *Windows Vista compatible and RoHS compliant*
http://www.directron.com/pciinternal.html

So I will give one of these a try and see what happens.

I had to transfer my documents to another PC to even fax them. Damn, I know encouraging a paperless office is good in some cases, but forcing users to do without a business staple is just stupid.