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Fax Troubleshooting - Common Issues and Fixes

Updated

This guide will assist you with troubleshooting common issues related to both the efax and SimpleFax services. SIP.US only provides fax support via its ticketing system and does not guarantee phone support. Response times, according to the service level agreement (SLA), may take up to 3 business hours. We recommend familiarizing yourself with these common issues and resolutions when you sign up for our service.

 

We also recommend reviewing the other articles in the Fax section of the SIP.US Help Center, including this General Q&A article regarding common questions we get about our fax services.

 

Efax-specific Troubleshooting

Inbound faxes are missing in your email inbox, but the faxes show delivered in the customer portal:

  • If you suspect or have confirmed you are missing faxes from either delivered inbound faxes or notification copies, you can recover the files from the customer portal under the Fax tab. Click on “View Faxes >>” to view the logs and click the Adobe Acrobat icon to download and open the copy.

  • Have you confirmed the email server is not affecting delivery? - Check your spam folder and also check that the email server is not rejecting or filtering the emailed faxes. Try changing the email address to a personal email or something without any security/packet inspection and see if the issue persists.

 

Unable to send or receive any faxes: (applies to both conditions simultaneously)

  • The email server could be blocking sending/receiving fax traffic - Try changing the email address/email server to a personal email or something without any security/packet inspection and see if the issue persists.
  • Confirm you are using the correct email address assigned to the fax number – Log in to the customer portal, navigate to the “Telephone Numbers” page and check the email assigned to the fax number. If you need to modify it, click the pencil edit icon to enable editing.

 

Unable to send outbound faxes:

  • Does this apply to all numbers or just some numbers?
    • Are you certain the email and file you are sending is correctly formatted? The email should be addressed to the SIP.US server in the following format: NPANXXXXXX@faxtrunk.us (the 10-digit number). The email attachment containing the fax should be in a compatible format (.pdf, .doc, .docx, .txt, and .rtf). The file name should be all lowercase text and should not contain any special characters. Try using a different file attachment to rule out file compatibility issues.
    • Do not send multiple file attachments – You may only send one fax file at a time and should not include any signatures as attachments when sending faxes. Multiple page attachments are accepted (up to 50MB, or about 190 pages).
    • Only unable to send to some numbers - Confirm you are sending faxes to a fax line that’s in service. You should hear a fax tone if you call the destination fax line. If the number is in service, but you cannot successfully send a fax, open a support ticket for our team to investigate.
    • If unable to send to any numbers – Confirm the email address you are sending from is assigned to the fax number or that the domain whitelist is in effect if anyone with an email from your company’s domain should be authorized to send outbound. Also, try reassigning the email and using a different email server, such as a personal email, to ensure a firewall/security software is not blocking your outbound email-to-fax attempts. If issues persist, please open a support request for our team to review.
    • Factor in possible queue times – During periods of high utilization, our fax server may be delayed in processing faxes, making it appear as if your fax was not delivered. Most faxes process and send in just a few minutes, but it can take upwards of 20 minutes in some cases. If you note delays exceeding 1 hour, please open a support request for our team to investigate.

 

Status Code 5 and 6 common causes:

  • Status: Failed Conversion - Code 5 = Special characters in the filename.

  • Status: Failed Conversion - Code 6 = Unsupported attachment format (check email signature).

  • These are common causes that trigger the error codes, but SIP.US recommends contacting the Support team to confirm errors, as there are other potential factors that can cause issues for outbound faxes.

 

Efax faxes are cut off at the bottom of the page:

  • Faxes are required to be formatted in A4 format. There is no scenario in which our efax service will cut off sections of a fax unless the issue originates from the sending party as a file formatting issue. SIP.US does not guarantee proper formatting if you include any signatures or send faxes in legal format or other sizes.

 

Where do inbound efax faxes originate from? What do I need to whitelist to receive the fax email copy?

  • Faxes are delivered from noreply@faxtrunk.us.

  • Fax delivery notifications are communicated from noreplyconfirm@faxtrunk.us.

 

SimpleFax ATA-specific Troubleshooting

New ATA is installed, service does not appear to be working:

  • Confirm the configuration and useage are as follows:
    • Network access should be plugged into the ATA's WAN port, NOT the WLAN port.
    • ATA has internet access, fax server IPs are whitelisted in firewall.
    • User dials a 10-digit NANP telephone number.
    • The ATA has been assigned an IP address from the network's DHCP server.
    • The ATA's DHCP-assigned IP address has NOT already been assigned to another device.
    • The fax machine has been configured properly.
    • Open a Support request if everything appears correctly configured and our team will assess the ATA connection to the fax server.

 

Unable to send or receive any faxes: (device was previously working)

  • Typically, these issues arise from the ATA not showing as connected to the fax server anymore.

  • You may try power cycling the ATA for 30 seconds as the first step. If that does not work, locate the “Reset” button on the back of the device and press it down for 10 seconds to initiate a device reset. This sometimes helps clear out cache issues or any hung processes.

  • Confirm the fax machine configuration has not changed and that it is operational.

  • Confirm that nothing has changed with the network configuration:
    • Network access should be plugged into the ATA's WAN port, NOT the WAN port.
    • ATA has internet access, fax server IPs are whitelisted in firewall, no ISP issues.
    • User dials a 10-digit NANP telephone number.
    • The ATA has been assigned an IP address from the network's DHCP server.
    • There is not an IP conflict with the ATA's DHCP-assigned IP address and another device.

  • If the device still does not send/receive faxes, open a support request and our Support team will review the configuration to ensure it is connected to the fax server. Support will perform a remote factory reset on the device if it shows connected. Once the factory reset is complete, the ATA can be retested. Support will provide additional troubleshooting if issues persist.

 

What server IPs need to be whitelisted for the SimpleFax ATA device?

  • 70.97.122.96 – 70.97.122.127 - 70.97.122.96/27
  • 199.242.63.144 – 199.242.63.159 - 199.242.63.144/28
  • 23.175.64.32 – 23.175.64.47 - 23.175.64.32/28 

  • Ports that will need to be opened on your firewall: 443 & 25 (make sure nothing is blocking the 443 port).

 

There are missing inbound faxes that show delivered in the customer portal:

  • If you suspect or have confirmed you are missing faxes from either delivered inbound faxes or notification copies, you can recover the files from the customer portal under the Fax tab. Click on “View Faxes >>” to view the logs and click the Adobe Acrobat icon to download and open the copy.

 

Faxes are cut off at the bottom of the page:

  • SIP.US uses A4 format - 8.3 x 11.7 inches (210 x 297 mm). If faxes are cut off, you will need to change the configuration settings for printing jobs from the fax machine.

 

Can I log in and make changes to the settings in the SimpleFax ATA?

  • SIP.US preconfigures the Audiocodes devices to work specifically with our fax server. The product is designed to be plug and play, with no user setup required within the Audiocodes device settings. There is never any reason you would need to log in to the ATA directly. At most, our Support team will only ask you to apply a device reset via the button on the back of the device when troubleshooting connectivity issues.

  • If you were to log in to the device and make changes to settings, it would run the risk of bricking the device. If the device cannot be restored to the default preconfigured settings, SIP.US will not be liable for the costs of replacing the device.

 

Faxes are delayed:

  • See the General Troubleshooting section below for some additional information on common causes for fax delays.
  • Confirm that the fax machine is not experiencing issues or accumulating pending jobs.

  • You may try power cycling the ATA for 30 seconds as the first step. If that does not work, locate the “Reset” button on the back of the device and press it down for 10 seconds to initiate a device reset. This sometimes helps clear out cache issues or any hung processes.

  • If delays persist, contact the Support team to request a remote factory restore and additional troubleshooting as needed.

 

General Troubleshooting

Faxes are delayed:

  • How long have you monitored the delay? - Sometimes faxes can take up to 20 minutes to pass through the queue during high volume periods. If faxes are delayed more than an hour, please submit a support request for us to review including at least two examples from the past 24 hours with details for the numbers faxed from, the numbers faxed to, and the exact times.
  • Are all faxes delayed or are you only experiencing delays to certain area codes or specific numbers? - If you experience delays on all faxes, agnostic to the geographic region, please submit a support request for us to review. Include any relevant details in the request, in addition to when the issue started happening. If you are only experiencing delays to specific numbers or a localized issue, please provide at least three examples to show the behavior can be reliably recreated and we will investigate.
  • If using a SimpleFax ATA, please see the above section in this article for additional details on delayed faxes.

 

Not receiving fax notifications:

  • Have you confirmed in the customer portal that notifications are turned on and being delivered to the expected email address? - This can be checked in the customer portal by navigating to “SIP Trunking” >> “Telephone Numbers” and check the fax-configured number there. Click the pencil edit icon to make changes.
  • Have you confirmed the email server is not affecting delivery? - Check your spam folder and also check that the email server is not rejecting or filtering the email notifications. Try changing the email address to something without any firewall/security/filtering rules, such as a personal email, and see if the issue persists.
  • Have you confirmed the faxes are being sent? Confirm that the faxes show as delivered in the logs in the customer portal. If you do not see the faxes, it could indicate that your outbound faxes were not successfully delivered to our server or that there is a sending issue with the external party attempting to send faxes inbound to your fax number.
  • Please open a support request once you have attempted troubleshooting in the previous steps.

 

The person’s email who a number is assigned to is no longer with the company, can you update the email?

  • The email can be updated at any time by logging in to the customer portal and making the change on the “Telephone Numbers” page. Click the pencil edit icon next to the fax number and update the email address on file. Changes can only be requested by authorized users on support requests.

 

We are unable to recover certain faxes, can we get copies of the faxes?

  • You may download pdf copies for any faxes in the logs from the Fax tab in the customer portal. Click “View Faxes” and then click the pdf icon next to an individual fax to download and open the file. Our fax server stores fax logs for at least 30 days.

 

The fax notifications do not provide a complete copy of the fax files:

  • Fax copies in the notifications emails only contain the first page of a multi-page fax.

  • You may download the full fax file via the Fax tab in the customer portal. Click “View Faxes” and then click the pdf icon next to an individual fax to download and open the file. Our fax server stores fax logs for 30 days.

  • SIP.US does not provide detailed long-term logs for fax service and recommends backing up that data locally.

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