Peenie Wallie

I have the User Guide, and I even found a copy of the Brother PPF FAX-560 User Guide online: But I can't figure out how to change the Baud rate or turn off ECM. This sucks.

You can get a fax line from Vonage for an additional $10/month, but I'm not sure why I should pay more money. There is a Microsoft delivered XP Fax Software program that works with a fax modem instead of using a separate fax machine.

I've tried a few suggestion I found on the Vonage website including:
1) Switched the telephone cable from a 4-line to a 2-line.
2) Connected the phone line directly from the Cisco Linksys Phone Adapter to the fax machine (no splitters in between).
3) Tried adding the *99 prefix in dialing string before each fax to the bandwidth to 90 for the call. This seemed like it was working, but I still got the "NG: POOR LINE CONDITION" message.

I'm going to call Brother at 877-276-8437 tomorrow to see if I'm missing something.

If I have to buy a different fax machine, this site lists some fax machines that can be set back to 9600 baud:
HP Fax Machines: HP6110, HP4110, HP6100xi, HP7410xi, HP PSC2210
Canon Fax Machines: Fax Phone B95
Brother Fax Machines: Fax-1835C, Fax-1840C, Fax-1940CN, Fax-2440C, Fax-2820, Fax-2825, Fax-2920, MFC-210C, MFC-215C, MFC-240C, MFC-3240C, MFC-3340c, MFC 420CN, and most other MFC models.

And then they list some faxes that allow you to turn off Error Correction Mode(ECM) on the following fax machines:
HP Fax Machines: For most HP 2000, 4100, 5000, 6000, 6100, and 7000 model Officejets.
Canon Fax Machines: B115, B120, B140, Fax Phone B95.
Brother Fax Machines: Brother MFC 420CN

I found this website that claims of my Brother FAX-560:

* No changes can be made on the Brother Fax-560 to better optimize for using with VoIP. Settings are already correct by default.
* Resolution is standard by default.
* Baud (baud rate) maximum is 9600
* ECM is not a feature of this fax machine

VOIP Frustration has directions on how to configure loads of fax machines from Brother, Canon, HP, Panasonic, and Sharp.

Update - Here's a link to my tedious spreadsheet showing a consolidation of all feedback I found on people's individual experience using Vonage with various fax machines.

Update 2 - There is also, apparently, a possibility also that my Cisco Linksys Phone Adapter is not the latest and greatest and most compatible. The model I have is a "Cisco Linksys PAP2 Phone Adapter with 2 Ports for Voice-over-IP". I remember setting this thing up and it was a glorious pain.

I verified that I had port forwarding set up correctly in my router for the ports as specified in the Linksys PAP2 User Guide
Application:

Internet phone 1 5060 to 5061 UDP
Internet phone 2 53 to 53 UDP
Internet phone 3 69 to 69 UDP
Internet phone 4 10000 to 20000 UDP

That all looks right. I checked the FIrmware version of the PAP2 unit:

By dialing **** 150#, I verified that my FIrmware is version 3.1.9c. I'm not sure if it matters or not, but that's what it is.

This site explains how to unlock your PAP2, but I'm not clear if mine is locked or not. I'm beginning to suspect it is locked, because when I type in the IP address to configure the PAP2, nothing happens. I also notice that the firmware was originally 3.1.3, and now it's 3.1.9c. So, I'm not sure how it got updated, but I seriously doubt that I did it because it was such a pain to get it working right that I'm reasonably sure I haven't jacked with it since then. This site explains how to unlock a PAP2 with firmware version 3.1.9, but it looks so complicated that I think I'm going to pass.

Finally, I decided to call Brother just to clarify what the baud rate is on the Brother FAX-560, if it can be changed, and if it has ECM, and if so, can ECM be turned off. After pressing zero enough times to get the phonedroid to shut up and dump me in a queue, I was placed on hold for several minutes. Then a guy answered and the conversation went something like this:
"What is your phone number?"
I told him my phone number.
"What is your address?"
I gave him my complete address, but I'm thinking "Why do they need my address? To send me junk mail?"
"What is you email address?"
And now I'm thinking - hold on here genius. I get enough spam as it is. And why am I allowing myself to be interrogated anyway? I'm the one that has a question.
"Look...I don't give out my email address...This is what I want to know....does my Brother 560 fax machine have ECM or not?"
"What is the model number, sir?"
"It says Brother FAX-560 Personal Plain Paper Fax."
"Can you tell me what the serial number is?"
"Huh? What do you need that for? Where is it?"

I stand up and pick up the fax machine that I'm talking on. It's full of printer paper, of course, because it's a "plain paper fax". I look on the back...there's nothing there...no serial number.

"It's on the bottom," he replies.

So now, he wants me to dump all of the paper out of the fax machine that I'm holding and talking on and now I've had enough.

"Look - forget the fucking serial number. All I want to know is this....does this fucking fax has ECM or not?"

At this point, we apparently got disconnected. I called back and got a woman on the phone and I refused to tell her anything. Not my name, not my address, not my email address, not my phone number. I justed asked her if, in fact, the Brother FAX-560 has ECM or not. At first, she assured me that it did, but after much checking and double-checking, she changed her mind and said it didn't have ECM. Then, I asked her what the "baud rate" was, and she had no idea what "baud" meant and had never the term. She didn't know what a baud rate was or if it could be changed.

She kept putting me on hold and doing God knows what and she really just obviously had no clue about the Brother FAX-560. I may as well have been asking her for arcane details of the lunar rover.

"Does anyone there know anything about this fax machine? Or are you just reading the same user guide I am?" I asked.

She apologized and profusely and finally transferred me to a guy who again attempted to interrogate me for my name and phone number. I'm like "Look....I'm not giving you my phone number. Y'all have never called me back so what's the point? What I want to know is this - What speed does the Brother FAX-560 transmit at?"

I know you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, but the guy I was talking to sounded like he was in Shanghai, so I doubt very seriously he was offended by my incorrect grammar.

"It depends on what you set the resolution at..." he began.

"No, it doesn't," I countered. I'd had enough of their bullshit. These people don't know any more about the Brother FAX-560 than I do. Probably, in truth, they know much less. But now, I finally had a question that Brother should be able to answer that wasn't in the owner's manual. What speed does the fax machine operate at? If it can't be changed, then so be it, but it has to have a transmission rate. I've read that it's 9600 baud, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

Finally, he came back and said that it operated at 9600 baud and that I couldn't change it. This is odd though, because all of the fax machine tips for working with Vonage say to turn off ECM and set the baud rate to 9600 baud, and this machine doesn't have ECM and only runs at 9600 baud and it won't work. Go figure.