Comswitch 5500 3-Port Phone/Fax Modem Line Sharing Device

Thanks for the thoughtful reviews which got me to try this unit.Unfortunately, there are also reviewers here who can not even read the first page of their manual. Please ignore their whining.I faced a difficult challenge. After purchasing an expensive multifunction laser [$800], Technical support at HP informed me that their best multifunction would not work with VOIP telephone service. They warned that the answering machine would "steal" calls from the fax machine. and it did. BTW, my VOIP is provided by Time Warner Cable- which guarantees that a fax will work on their service.So I tried a Brother machine - much cheaper . Soon their technical support warned of answering machine and fax incompatibliity with VOIP service.So I dropped the multifunction angle. I purchased a separate Canon MF6530 Printer Copier, a Canon Fax Laser L80, and a Panasonic Digital answering machine.I bought the Comswitch 5500, and had all of these devices installed within less than an hour.Everything worked, answering machine, fax, copier printer right out of the box!However, I did find that the remote phones in other rooms rang only once. So - per the manual - I needed to set the ComSwitch 5500 to "semiautomatic".But I got a VOIP message when I entered the codes to do so.So I called ComSwitch technical support. Technical suport answered in one ring!He solved my code difficulty immediately.With this device, you can set up your office and your machines to work the way you do. And, get the quality you need in your office.Again, thanks for tipping me off to the value of this device.

If you have a fax machine that no longer justifies the expense of a separate phone line (because you now have Internet email), but you're reluctant to part with the machine, this Comswitch will allow you to use a phone and fax on the same land line, with automatic signal detection and switching between phone, fax, and answering machine. It was reliable and handy for me when sending and receiving hundreds of pages of legal documents that needed signatures at both ends of the transmissions. The only reason I'm not giving it more than 3 stars is that it's usefulness is declining as Internet technology is expanding.

We have "distinctive ring" service on our phone line: the line has a second number associated with it; when that number is dialed the phone rings but with a distinctive "short-short" burst rather than the normal ring. This device allows us to use this second number as a dedicated fax number. It senses the distinctive ring and routes the call to a fax machine (or, in our case, to a desktop computer that also receives faxes). When the phone rings normally, the call is not rerouted--we can pick it up or our answer machine will if we don't. We have found the device very reliable over a month's use; once set up, you can forget it, it just works. I'm not sure how. It is connected to one of three extension jacks for this number; the answer machine and another phone are on a second line, but this is no problem.It has one important limitation: the only distinctive ring it can sense is the "short-short"--our phone company also offered other options. If you chose another option, you have to revise that choice to the short-short ring for this device to work. The device also requires programming to align it with your setup. It comes configured for a setup in which there is no distinctive ring service. In that case, the device apparently senses whether the incoming call is from a fax machine or is a voice call, and responds appropriately. I have no experience with that function. To set it up for my situation, I had to call the support line, as I was not successful using the instructions that came with it. But the support line worked ok, there was very little wait, and i got someone who was able to help with little difficulty. A more convenient programming set up is all the device needs for a five star rating, in my estimation.

I used to a multipurpose printer - fax, scanner, printer for faxing, but it would consume too much ink from the printer, when I did not really need to print out the fax out. I found that my computer, Apple Mac, can replace the fax functions for both send and receiving faxes. My problem was I did not want to get a separate phone line for faxing. So my answering machine and my fax software competed for the phone line based on the number of rings. Since both count rings the one set for the shortest number of rings would receive the call, so I would miss phone voice messages or faxes. So I had to know and stand-by when I was going to receive a fax. What a pain.This product solves the problem by replacing me. It is placed in series with my phone line and both a fax machine (my computer modem port) and my answering machine / handset. It picks up the line before either device sees the ring and determines if it is a fax or not. If it is a fax it connected it to the fax machine, if not it send it to my answering machine / handset. Now I miss nothing. It even handles caller ID. Great product!!Also the company has good customer support. I asked a number of technical questions before I bought the product and they answered they quickly and accurately.