Advantage of Faxing
A primary advantage of sending documents via fax is the extra error checking and reporting available.
Fax works by sending information via a telephone call. During the call, each fax machine communicates to confirm pages were received successfully. If a fax is not received, the sender is alerted.
Technology behind sending a fax
To explain this process further, for every fax transmission there are a few stages:
- Pre-processing of the fax message (TNZ preparing your fax for sending)
- Call initiation (TNZ dialling the receiving fax number)
- Call acceptance (the receiving fax machine answering the fax call)
- Call negotiation (TNZ negotiating details with the receiving fax machine, eg Caller ID, sending speed, etc)
- Transmission of data (your fax document being sent)
- Confirmation of transmission (the receiving fax machine confirms the fax page was successfully received
- Step 5 and 6 repeat individually for each fax page)
- Completion of call (receiving fax machine acknowledges all pages have been successfully received)
- Call ends
Once the fax transmission completes, the sender of the fax will be able to view a Delivery Report detailing the fax results. There are two parts to the Delivery Report:
Status outlines the overall outcome of the fax transmission (either "Success" or "Failed")
Result details a more specific outcome (eg "Sent OK" or "No Answer")
If there is a fax failure at any of the above steps, the Status may be "Failed" and the Result code will outline why.
Eg if the call fails at step 1, the Result will be something like 'Bad Number', whereas if the call fails at step 2, the Result will be something like 'No Answer'.
Fax Result Codes and what these mean
A full list of Result Codes is as follows:
| Status | Result | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Success | Sent Ok | Delivered and acknowledged (Steps 1-9 completed) |
| Success | Sent OK - No Confirmation | All pages were delivered (Step 7 completed, but the receiving fax machine ended the call without providing Step 8) |
| Failed | Unable to create a fax output file from your input | The fax document submitted has a fault (Step 1 failed during preparation as the document is not supported, missing, or corrupt) |
| Failed | Rejected-Non routeable-Invalid Email Address | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1 failed during preparation as the destination is an invalid email address) |
| Failed | Rejected-Service Disabled-Service is Disabled for your Account | The fax number is incorrect or you do not have rights to fax this number (Step 1 failed during preparation as the destination is an invalid fax number) |
| Failed | No Permit Record | There is a fault; contact TNZ (Step 1 failed during preparation as the destination fax number is unknown) |
| Failed | Rejected-07-Invalid Number | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1 failed during preparation as the destination fax number is known to be invalid) |
| Failed | Invalid Number Format | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1 failed during preparation as the destination fax number is known to be invalid) |
| Failed | Rejected-Barred - Voice Line-Voice Line | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1 failed during preparation as the destination fax number is known to be invalid) |
| Failed | Rejected-Barred - Customer Requested-Customer requested no messages (OptOut) | The fax number is blocked (Step 1 failed during preparation as the destination fax number is on your account's Blacklist) |
| Failed | Invalid Fax Number (RP) | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1 failed during preparation as the destination fax number is invalid or too short) |
| Failed | Bad Number | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1 completed, but Step 2 failed as the destination fax number could not be dialled) |
| Failed | Unallocated Number | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1 completed, but Step 2 failed as the destination fax number could not be dialled) |
| Failed | Unable to connect call (CR) | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1 completed, but Step 2 failed as the destination fax number could not be dialled) |
| Failed | Temporary Failure | The fax needs to be resent (Step 1 completed, but Step 2 failed for an unknown reason; possibly a TNZ issue) |
| Failed | Exchange_Routing_Error | The fax needs to be resent (Step 1 completed, but Step 2 failed as a downstream exchange/carrier has a fault) |
| Failed | Busy | The fax number is busy/engaged (Step 1 completed, but Step 2 failed as the destination fax number could not be dialled) |
| Failed | No Answer | The fax number is not answering (Step 1 completed, but Step 2 failed as the destination fax number rang for 60 seconds without answering) |
| Failed | Call Timed Out | There is a fault; contact TNZ (Step 1-3 completed, but a subsequent step failed and the call was held up for too long) |
| Failed | Voice | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1-3 completed, but Step 4 failed as the call was answered by a human voice) |
| Failed | Modem | The fax number is incorrect (Step 1-3 completed, but Step 4 failed as the call was answered by a modem) |
| Failed | Max Duration | There is a fault; contact TNZ (Step 1-3 completed, but a subsequent step failed and the call was held up for too long) |
| Failed | Communication Error | There is a fault; contact TNZ (Step 1-5 completed, but Step 6 failed, likely due to a connection, receiver or document issue; see Communication Errors |
| Failed | Unspecified Hangup | There is a fault; contact TNZ (Step 1-3 completed, but a subsequent step failed for an unknown reason |
| Failed | Job Aborted | The sender aborted the fax manually before sending (Step 1 failed) |
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