What versions of the PalmOS are supported?

Fax works on any Palm OS device from any manufacturer running Palm OS 2.0 or later.

Can I receive a fax?

The previous version of this software had code to receive fax, but it did not work for many phones. Until we have debugged this feature, we will be leaving it out. When we are satisfied it works with a wide variety of modems and mobile phones, we will add the feature back in as part of a free update.

Can I send images?

Yes. Images drawn using the popular applications Diddle and Doodle may be included in the text of any fax sent. See the manual for further details.

What modems/phones are supported?

In general, any modem that does Fax Class 2 or Fax Class 2.0 is supported. Some phones/modems only handle the older Fax Class 1 standard, which we do not currently support. A partial list of phones we have tested is listed below. If your modem/phone is not listed, send the command AT+FCLASS=? to the device using a terminal program (such as Online) and send us the results.

Can I connect to an external modem?

Yes, just use a DataCord modem cable available from Mark/Space. It has a Palm connector (III, V or Visor style) on one end and a DB-25 or DB-9 modem/serial connector on the other end.

How do I use the wireless modem of the Kyocera 6035?

Make sure you have 1.0d14 (earlier versions won't work).

Then select 'Modem Config' from the 'Options' menu, choose 'Kyocera 6035' from the modem type menu and 'Wireless' from the 'port' menu.

My phone/modem reports 'NO CARRIER' even though I know the number is correct. Why?

Make sure you do not have the option 'Print Mode' selected in the 'Modem Config' dialog. This option is ONLY for use when connecting a landline modem to a fax machine, and will give a 'NO CARRIER' message on any modem that does not support this feature, which is the case for ALL MOBILE PHONES.

If that is not the case...

First dial the number you are trying to reach with a land line phone to verify that a fax machine really answers at that number. Then verify that you are dialing the same number from the fax software (including any special numbers to reach an outside line, country codes, area codes, etc. If all the above is correct, then note that:

Many carriers require that you dial the 1 and/or the country code. ie, "1-408-555-1212" and not just "408-555-1212".

With many carriers (especially GSM) you need to pay extra to be able to make a fax or data connection. GSM Phones actually have multiple phone numbers - one each for voice, fax and data. Verify with your carrier that data and fax services are enabled for your phone/account. Note that even if you can make data calls, you may still need to request fax services to be enabled as well. This happens quite often!

We have run into some US GSM carriers that often mis-configure phones for fax service. In particular, the combination of Nokia 8290 on VoiceStream seems to be problematic - VoiceStream sometimes improperly sets a required service related switch. This can take several calls to VoiceStream tech support to straighten out, but persistence pays off.

There are some companies that support data services, but not fax services (for all or some of their accounts). In such a case, you would need to switch to a new account or carrier. (One examples is "Telcom Italia Mobile" - they only support fax if you have a business account and pay extra to enable fax services)

Success has also been reported after turning the phone off and then back on (causing it to reset).

How do I access the "Options" menu? Is it disabled in the demo?

All program features are available in the demo - You gain access to the menu bar by tapping the "menu" button in the silk-screen area of the device. This is the silk-screened button to the direct left of the "abc" button of the grafitti input area.

(For further details on using menus and PalmOS in general, please consult the user guide that accompanied your PalmOS device.)

My phone/modem only does Fax Class 1 - will it work?

No. The current release of our software only supports Class 2 and Class 2.0 fax modems. We may add support for Class 1 in the future if we get enough feedback requesting it.

Can I fax using an OmniSky modem or a TCP connection?

No. OmniSky provides a TCP connection to the internet. It does not have the ability to connect to a fax machine over phone lines.

Can I fax from the wireless modem in my Palm VII?

No. The Palm VII wireless modem provides a network connection to palm.net, it does not have the ability to connect directly to a fax machine over phone lines. However you can fax using a regular fax modem or fax capable mobile phone connected to your Palm VII via cable, wireless, or snap-on.

How can I use an IR modem or phone and my Handspring Visor?

If using a newer Visor with OS 3.5 or later, just select "IRComm" from the port menu.

Older Visors run OS 3.1, which does not (directly) support IRComm. However you CAN use IRlink 1.5 software from from IS/Complete. This software adds what is needed to your Visor (or other pre OS 3.3 PalmOS devices) so that it can work with IR enhanced modems such as the Ericsson Di27 and phones such as the Ericsson 888.

Can my PalmOS device wake up when a call comes in ("wake-on-ring") to auto-receive a fax?

Not that we know of, at least with anything "off the shelf". We are researching the issue further.

Some issues to keep in mind (why this may not happen) are that even if the PDA were sleeping, the modem would have to stay awake, and a AAA powered modem would not be able to stay awake very long. Adding a circuit to a modem so that the modem could sleep while waiting for a call as well as the PDA is possible, but would add a cost to each modem made, and it is not clear that the number of people that would benefit from this feature would justify the added cost to each modem made. If you would find this a very valueable feature, please communicate it to the modem hardware vendors.

However, it should be possible (in theory) to use an external modem with a special cable such that the "ring indicator" line would trigger a hotsync message. You could then set the app to run on modem hotsync to be fax instead of hotsync. Anyone wanting to give this a try, send us email for the geeky details.

I had to restore my handheld from a backup and now I get various errors refering to bad or missing UIDs. Why?

The Mac version of Hotsync does not properly restore UIDs from a backup. This bug has been reported to Palm and should be fixed in the next release (at the time of this writing, the current release, with the bug, is Palm Desktop for Mac OS 2.6.1 or earlier).

If you run into this problem, you will need to delete fax from your handheld, (which also deletes the database) and then re-install just the application. This way it will create a new database.

Why does the text on fax that are sent appear 'chunky'?

All the Palm fonts are bitmap fonts meant for viewing on-screen and at (roughly) 72dpi. A fax is usually 144 dpi, so unless you halve the font size (which you can do in the software, but they would appear very small on the resulting fax), they are already going to look twice as "chunky" as they do on the Palm. If you elect to double the size of the fonts (which is the default setting in the software) they then may appear up to 4 times as 'chunky' (ie, each pixel in the ROM font would be represented by a 4 by 4 pixel on the fax).

We may be able to address this by either providing a custom extra large font (so it would scale better), better scaling, and/or anti-aliasing, but this isn't something we would be doing in the initial 1.0 release.

I can't seem to fax with my clip-on modem if Afterburner is active. Why?

There is likely not much we can do about that - the PalmOS serial routines are timing sensitive, and Palm doesn't vouch that their OS will work when the device is overclocked. We will make a note of it, however for the time being we recommend that you disable Afterburner when using Fax.

Can I fax working right to left in Hebrew?

Yes, if you use Penticon's Hebrew support software (www.penticon.com). Just use Memopad to write a Hebrew Note, it does the letters properly from right to left, and it comes out perfectly in Fax.

When I select the 2nd (or 3rd, 4th etc) fax number entry in the lookup feature, the first fax number is returned. Why?

Due to a bug in PalmOS 3.5 related to looking up fax numbers, we can only determine the record number of the selection, and thus always select the first fax number found in that record.

Because of the large number of PalmOS devices running 3.5, we plan to re-write the fax number lookup code in a future release to address this issue.