How to fax from a printer

First, check the printer can actually fax

• Look for an RJ-11 socket on the back marked LINE — the small telephone-cable socket, not the wide network one. No socket, no fax.
• Check that a cable runs from it to a live wall jack. A fax card with nothing plugged in is the most common reason "the printer has fax" turns out to be false.
• Pick up a handset on that line and listen for a dial tone. No dial tone, no fax.
• A VoIP line is a coin toss: it works when the provider and the adapter support fax properly (T.38, or G.711 pass-through with compression off) and fails mid-page when they do not. Ask the provider before assuming either.

Sending paper from the panel

1. Load the pages with the cover sheet first — follow the icon on the feeder tray, because some models take documents face up and others face down — or place them on the glass one page at a time.
2. Press Fax on the panel.
3. Dial the number the way the line expects it — ten digits on most lines, 1 first for long distance where the carrier wants it — and add the outside-line prefix (often 9) if your office uses one.
4. Press Start and wait — the handshake tones take a few seconds before pages begin to move.
5. Keep the confirmation report the printer prints or shows in its fax log: it records that the far end acknowledged the transmission and how many pages it took. It says nothing about whether those pages were legible or the right way up.

Sending a file from your computer

Install the manufacturer's full driver package, not the basic print driver. It adds a second device — usually named something like "HP OfficeJet Fax" or "Brother PC-FAX" — that appears in the normal print dialog.

Then it is File → Print, choose the fax device, and the driver asks for the destination number instead of printing. HP calls the utility HP Send Fax, Canon uses the Canon Fax Driver, Brother PC-FAX, Epson FAX Utility. The steps are identical; only the names differ.

When it fails

• "No dial tone": the cable is in the wrong socket (EXT instead of LINE) or the line is dead.
• "Busy" or "No answer": the far end is genuinely busy, or the number is a voice line. Redial once before doubting the number.
• Pages come out blank at the far end: the originals went in the wrong way up — feeders and glass differ.
• The fax connects and then drops mid-page: usually a VoIP line without proper fax support, or a noisy line.

If the line is gone, skip the printer

If nobody can find a dial tone, the printer cannot help, and reconnecting an analogue line for occasional faxing costs $15–40 a month. Scan on the same printer, save the PDF, and send it from a browser instead: the recipient's machine still prints a normal fax, and you skip the line rental entirely.