Edit...The title question is supposed to say shared fax not hared, Thanks

Hello, what set-up do i need?
I have 2 seperate phone lines and a two lined phone answering system.

I need to be able to have incoming calls rollover to line 2 when line 1 is busy. I also need the fax machine to be available at all times. The fax needs to be land based (if thats what you would call it) not e-fax. The majority of the faxes will just need to be signed, notes added, adjustments etc., then faxed back to the insurance co.

Do I have to get a third line? Or is there something I am missing? I worked for a company that only had 2 lines and people would be on both lines and never had an issue with the fax, which was used alot.

Thanks a bunch!!
Kathy

From my understanding it depends on your phone lines. They can be dedicated or split. If you have a split line I believe you can run fax and phone through it. You would be best checking with a communications company of contractor for what you need.

Cheers

How many faxes do you get per day? A lot or just a few? And how many rollover calls will there be per day?

If you get a lot of both, you really should get a separate phone line for the fax machine, because people who send faxes will always expect that your fax machine will be ready to receive their fax; they won't understand when that doesn't happen.

In fact, if you get LOTS AND LOTS of faxes every day, you could get two fax machines (they're not that expensive) -- one to receive and one to send. You would put the receiving machine on its own line, and the sending machine on your rollover line. In that way, you'll never tie up the receiving line when you are sending a fax.

If, however, you receive only occasional faxes, you could probably get just the two lines you have described, and get "distinctive ring" on the rollover line. (Distinctive ring acts like a party line -- there are two phone numbers on the same line; when you call one number, it rings normally; when you call the other number, it rings different - e.g. two short rings vs. one long ring.) Most fax machines can be set to ignore the normal ring, and to answer only the distinctive ring. It works like a champ, and saves you the cost of a separate line, IF YOU DON'T GET VERY MANY FAXES!

If you will get a lot of rollover calls, then distinctive ring might not work for you, because the rollover calls will be tying up your fax line.

I hope this helps!