I received another computer technology related question on a third party website where I earn supplemental income answering computer and technology related questions. Here is the initial question verbatim.
“I am trying to see , how can I connect my printer to use for FAX. My printer is HP Officejet Pro 8720. Please tell me how to connect and where do I find the cord.”
This individual had a previous printer configured to fax. I think that printer started malfunctioning with a problem with the power cable adapter. Anyways, they went and purchased another RJ11 phone cable.
Here is my initial response.
You will need a standard RJ11 phone cable. You can follow the instructions in the following Hewlett Packard web page link. Connect the phone cable to your phone jack and then to your 8720.
Also, you can test faxing using HP’s free test fax service. When it comes to using your printer as a fax machine, they are pretty straight forward. You first want to make sure you have a RJ11 phone cable.
They have been available for decades now. They are the smaller cables NOT an Ethernet computer cable. You would connect this RJ11 phone cable into your phone wall outlet.
Then you would connect the other end into the 1-Line port on the printer. If you are using an answering machine, then you would need two RJ11 phone cables. One cable connects from the telephone wall outlet jack to your answering machine.
The second cable would connect from the answering machine to your printer. You would use the 2-EXT port on your printer. Another item you may need to adjust is your auto answer and or number of rings on answer settings.
If you are using this same phone line to make and receive calls you want to make sure that auto answer fax mode is disabled. Also, you want to allow as many rings as possible for you to answer the phone before the fax machine takes over. If this is just a dedicated phone line for faxing, you need not worry about these additional settings.
If you send faxes for your business you may want to adjust the header. You can configure your business name, phone number, address, email address, etc. that will show up on the top of the header page, for each fax transmission you complete. Also, if you send out personal faxes you could adjust the header to your liking.
Now you are ready to send a test fax. I think it is highly productive of you to send out some test faxes before you use your printer as a fax machine. Hewlett Packard actually has a toll free phone number that you can send and receive test faxes.
These calls are completely free. You can send and receive faxes to 1-888-HPFaxme or 1-888-473-2963 within the United States. You can send and receive faxes directly from the Hewlett Packard printer or your computer.
You would place your document(s) on the glass or into the automatic document feeder. Then you would dial the fax telephone number using the keypad. Now you would click the “Send” button.
Also, you can send document(s) from your computer. You would need to download and install Hewlett Packard full driver and software package for your OfficeJet Pro 8720 printer. Then on your computer you would use the HP fax software to select the document(s) you want to send.
You would dial the fax number and click whatever button is used in the software to send or fax. Your computer can be configured to automatically receive faxes. You can even have them sent to an email address, stored to your local computer, or even a network drive.
These are advanced fax techniques that beyond the scope of this basic how to fax from printer blog post. This blog post was written specifically for a Hewlett Packard Officjet 8720 all in one printer. However, you can certainly use it as a basis point for other Hewlett Packard printers with fax capability.