Support Printers All-In-Ones WorkForce Series Epson WorkForce Pro WF-C5890

How do I use an answering machine with my fax?

  • See below.

    Connecting a Telephone or Answering Machine

    You must connect your product to a telephone wall jack to send or receive faxes. If you want to use the same telephone line to receive calls, you can connect a telephone or answering machine to your product using an additional phone cable.

    Note: You may not be able to use the printer with the following phone lines or systems:

    • VoIP phone line such as DSL or fiber-optic digital service
    • Digital phone line (ISDN)
    • Some PBX telephone systems
    • When adapters such as terminal adapters, VoIP adapters, splitters, or DSL router are connected between the telephone wall jack and the printer
    1. Connect a phone cable to your telephone wall jack and to the LINE port on your product.

      Note: If you have a DSL or ISDN connection, you must connect the appropriate DSL filter, or ISDN terminal adapter or router to the wall jack to be able to use the line for faxing or voice calls using your product. Contact your DSL or ISDN provider for the necessary equipment.

    2. If you are connecting a telephone or answering machine to your product using a second phone cable, remove the cap from the EXT port on your product.

      Note: If your telephone has a fax function, disable the fax function before connecting it. If you are not able to completely disable the fax function on your telephone, you may not be able to use it as an external telephone.

    3. Connect a second phone cable to your telephone or answering machine and to the EXT port on your product.

      Note: If you connect an answering machine and Receive Mode is set to Auto, set the number of rings before your product answers a call to a number that is higher than your answering machine's setting for the number of rings.

      Make sure to connect the telephone to the EXT port on your product. If you split the telephone line between your telephone and the product, they will not work correctly.

    Related tasks
    Receiving Faxes Automatically
    Using the Fax Setup Wizard
    Related references
    Cannot Receive Faxes with a Telephone Connected to Your Product
Published:  Jan 1, 2023 Was this helpful?​ Thank you for the feedback!
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