MFC-J870DW
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FAQs & Troubleshooting |
Use voice mail on the same line as my Brother machine.
If you have voice mail on the same telephone line as your Brother machine, there is a strong possibility that voice mail and the Brother machine will conflict with each other while receiving incoming calls. Depending on which of the 2 (Brother machine or voice mail) answers first, will determine where the incoming call will be received.
There are a few things you can do to avoid conflicts between your Brother machine and voice mail service:
Distinctive Ring function is not supported in some countries.
In Manual Mode, your Brother machine will not answer the line automatically unless you are using your telephone company's Distinctive Ring service. See the section titled "Using Distinctive Ring" for information regarding the Distinctive Ring feature.
Manual Mode requires that you answer every incoming call by lifting the handset of a telephone that shares the line with your Brother machine. If the incoming call is a telephone call, then complete the call as you normally would. If you hear fax-sending tones when you lift the handset, press *51 (*91 for New Zealand) and your Brother machine will start receiving the fax. When you hear the receiving tones produced by your Brother machine, replace the handset and your machine will receive and print the fax.
Follow the steps below to put your Brother machine in Manual Mode:
If your Brother machine's Easy Receive (Fax Detect) feature is turned on, then you do not have to press *51 (*91 for New Zealand) to receive a fax in Manual Mode. Simply lift the handset of a telephone that shares the line with your Brother machine, wait until you hear your Brother machine's fax receiving tones, and hang up the handset. Your Brother machine should receive the incoming fax automatically. Additionally, if a caller wants to send a fax after speaking to you, simply press *51 (*91 for New Zealand) when they are ready to send the fax.
Follow the steps below to enable your Brother machine's Easy Receive (Fax Detect) feature:
You can avoid conflicts between your voice mail and your Brother machine by using your telephone company's Distinctive Ring service. Distinctive Ring allows you to have two different numbers on the same telephone line, each with its own ring pattern. Therefore, you can have your voice mail assigned to answer only your "main" telephone number and program your Brother machine to only answer the second number. Since voice mail and the Brother machine will not try to answer the same ring pattern, conflict between them is avoided.
You must pay for your telephone company's Distinctive Ring service before you program your Brother machine to work with it. Contact your local telephone company for availability and rates. Brother uses the term "Distinctive Ring" to describe this service, but telephone companies market it under a variety of names, such as Custom Ringing, Personalized Ring, Smart Ring, Ring Master, Ident-a-Ring, Ident-a-Call, Data Ident-A-Call, Teen Ring, SimpleBiz Fax & Alternate Number Ringing, FaxAbility, and BT Call Sign.
Follow the steps below to program your Brother machine to work with your telephone company's Distinctive Ring service:
When you are using the Distinctive Ring feature, your Brother machine's Receive Mode is automatically set to Manual. If you disable Distinctive Ring, the Receive Mode will still be Manual until you change it.
You can connect an external answering machine to a telephone jack on the same line as your Brother machine or to your Brother machine's EXT jack (socket),which will allow you to receive both faxes and voice messages automatically.
When someone dials your telephone/fax number, every telephone on the line, including the Brother machine, will ring according to the number of rings you set on the answering machine. If you do not answer the call, your answering machine will. As your answering machine's outgoing message is playing, your Brother machine is silently "listening" for fax-sending tones. If your Brother machine detects fax-sending tones, then it will take over the line and receive the fax. If your Brother machine does not detect fax-sending tones, then your answering machine will continue to play your outgoing message so the caller can leave a message.
Follow the steps below to set up an answering machine to share the telephone line with your Brother machine:
Physically connecting the answering machine to the Brother machine:
Recording the outgoing message on your answering machine:
*We recommend beginning your outgoing message with 5 seconds of silence because your Brother machine cannot detect fax sending tones over a resonant or loud voice. You can try omitting this pause, but if your Brother machine has trouble receiving, you should re-record your outgoing message with the pause included.