Incoming fax my accountant tries every week to fax information to me but my fax machine does not or will not recognise his tone (it is through a computer I believe)but the bizarre thing is, every now and then it WILL come through perfectly normal first time!! how can that be? is it something in my settings?

Dear
Connect the telephone line to the LINE socket of the fax machine and a telephone receiver unit to the EXT socket of the fax machine.

To send a fax, put the document on the platen glass (face downward) or face upward in case of ADF.
press on hook dial, (here the dial tone on machines speaker)
dial the fax no. ( wait for call connection and here the fax Rx. tone)
press START.

To receive a fax two procedure can made, manual- lift a hand set of telephone receiver on incoming ring, here the TX tone(periodical beep tone) press * 9 * of the telephone receiver. In auto mode go to fax setup select ans. to ring or auto fax etc. to activate atuo reveive of fax.

Hope this may helpful.
Thanks.

Sounds like it's not set to auto-answer faxes. Do you have the manual so you can see how to check that setting? If not, I can try to find it.

Take your incoming phone line and plug it into the place that says "line" on your fax machine. Plug another phone cord into where it says "phone" and connect this to your telephone. Test to make sure you have chosen the right places by dialing a phone number to fax to and listen for the dial tone. If you get a dial tone, then you have set it up correctly.

On the fax machine look for the button that says "menu". Push it and use the up and down arrows to navigate the options on the display. Look for fax set up and press "ok" or "enter" on the fax machines keyboard to access this area. Look for "number of rings" and change the fax machine to a number of rings that is less then your voice mail box if you have one. Then close and save your choices.

Have someone send a test fax by dialing your phone number for the line connected to the machine. The fax machine will pick up on the number of rings set and automatically begin receiving and printing a copy of your incoming fax.

You cannot use magic jack.

You can also choose to manually answer an incoming fax if you see that your display on the fax machine says "ringing" or incoming" you can push the "start" button and this will start receiving your incoming fax.

Press START

Try This:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/BSC/Public/files/dlf/doc000239/T8_UG_US_1.pdf
Hope it helps

Nope. Fax machines use what is called a handshake to establish the connection.
It's a tone sent from the sending fax machine to the receiving machine to make it answer and receive the incoming transmition.
It's not a unique ring.
I always tell people, one of two things. If faxs are that important, you should have a dedicated phone line to receive them. Or, in instances where the message it very important. Use E-mail and sent the information as an attachment.
I understand the expense of an additional phone line for a fax. But you should weigh the importance of your faxing to the expense. Are you missing valuable information by sharing a line?
Just some thoughts.

There is no setting to make this work, sorry.

This is just the nature of digital phone service. Some fax machines will work, and some won't, but generally the extremely high priced units are the one that will work (of course, right?)

It all has to do with the way the fax machine "hears" the ring, or detects the dial tone.

The only other option is to use the HP as a scanner, and send the faxes through the internet using a 3rd party fax program.

I know this is a pain, but unless you want to shell out big bucks for a new fax machine, it may be the only answer.

Try going through menu and turn ECM to no or invalid also try adsl filter on incoming line

here is the manual go to the troubleshooting section

http://www.retrevo.com/search/v2/jsp/downloadPage.jsp?doc=153e40d2e15d92515553420359e449b4&q=brother+2800+manual

Voicemail or telephone answering device (TAD). There is a BIG difference. Voicemail is product of your telephone service provider. If you have voicemail, most providers have a solution to this that you must arrange through them. If you have an answering machine, you can set your Brother to TAD mode. In TAD mode, if your answering machine picks up, (you must set your answering machine to answer in less rings than your fax), your fax will "eavesdrop" to listen for the fax tones from the sending machine. If it hears these tones, it will disconnect your answering machine and accept the incoming fax. If it does not hear the tones, it allows the answering machine to record the incoming message. If you are home. If you answer the call and hear a tone every 2.5 to 3 seconds, that signals an incoming fax. Simply touch *51 on the keypad of the phone you picked up on. You will hear some shrill tones. That is your fax machine attempting to receive the incoming fax. Hang up the phone you are on and it will receive the fax. In any case, make sure that the receive mode is NOT set to AUTO. Set the receive mode to TAD or MANUAL. If these instructions were not clear enough, let me know and I will send you DETAILED instructions. You can find the manual here: http://www.brother-usa.com/Data/Documentation/Fax/User/UM_FAX2820_FAX2920_MFC7220_MFC7225N.pdf If you need additional assistance, please let me know before you rate this solution. Ed