use my old Fax as a printer

[Dustythecat]

Is there a way to use my old fax as a spare printer. I have a fax modem on my PC. There are no USB or Parallel port connections which can be used on the Fax. It's an old Sharp Fax.

[RamonGTP]

Unless you send every print job as a fax, I don't think so. Even that would require 2 phone lines.

[Dustythecat]

Unless you send every print job as a fax, I don't think so. Even that would require 2 phone lines.

I don't understand the two phone lines part??

[RamonGTP]

Meaning you can't use it as a printer, only a fax. You'd have to send the print job as faxes. So you'd need a phone line for your computer to send the fax and a phone line to the fax machine to receive it.

Bascially, what I'm trying to say is, no, you cannot use it as a printer. The good news is that a decent laser printer can be had for about $100.

[Dustythecat]

Meaning you can't use it as a printer, only a fax. You'd have to send the print job as faxes. So you'd need a phone line for your computer to send the fax and a phone line to the fax machine to receive it.

Bascially, what I'm trying to say is, no, you cannot use it as a printer. The good news is that a decent laser printer can be had for about $100.

OK, I'm trying to understand why I can't just connect the PC to the fax using a single phone line. Do you have any knowledge about what essential parts would be missing?
I'm not interested in buying something else. This Fax has a great thermal printer. What do I have to do the make the connection?

[Steve R Jones]

You need software specifically written for the fax machine and the version of windows you're using.

It'd need to be a "faxing" type software that allows to do a print preview type function.

[Supahdee]

Ok look, I can offer you two options, one would be to buy a magic jack, plug the old fax into that and whenever you want to use it to print, just send yourself a fax, the other would be to make yourself a simple path cable that simulates the tel line, you just splice a battery into the phone line between the of and the fax, look up how to use two old phones as an intercom, you want a cable like that, then set the fax and the of to manual mode, pick up the handset on the fax machine click start on the of and when you hear the incoming fax beep,hit recieve fax on your fax machine, and it should start, it also goes both ways, so you can alternately scan documents into your pc this way, I used to use a method like this before I had a printer, and works well enough but can be hit or miss, costs about five dollars for the parts and I'll be happy to go into more detail if you want

[tony_j15]

Methinks that after 4 years the problem has been resolved.

Welcome to TechIMO, Supahdee.