Sending a fax from a Brother printer is surprisingly simple, transforming an outdated process into a breeze. In this concise guide, we’ll walk you through the steps of setting up your Brother printer for faxing, ensuring you can send and receive faxes with ease.
The Fax Functionality in Brother Printers
Brother printers are known for their reliability and multifunctional capabilities, including built-in fax features. However, not all Brother printer models have fax functionality.
The Brother models that do fax are typically identified as Multi-Function Center (MFC) printers. These MFC printers will typically have “fax” included in the model name or description.
Preparing Your Brother Printer for Faxing
Before you can start faxing, your Brother printer needs to be properly set up. First, ensure your printer is connected to a working phone line. This connection is necessary for sending and receiving faxes.
Next, install the printer drivers and fax software on your computer, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Once the software is installed, configure the basic fax settings through your printer’s control panel.
This includes entering your fax number, adjusting the ring delay, and setting up a fax header that will appear on outgoing faxes.
Sending a Fax With Your Brother Printer
Here’s how to send a fax with a Brother printer.
- Prepare the Document: Place your documents face up in the automatic document feeder (ADF) or face down on the scanner glass.
- Enter Fax Mode: Select the “Fax” mode on your printer’s control panel.
- Dial the Recipient’s Number: Enter the recipient’s fax number using the keypad. Carefully double-check the number before hitting send to ensure it’s correct.
- Choose Sending Options: Select any additional settings, such as resolution or contrast adjustments, to ensure your document is sent with the best possible quality.
- Send the Fax: Press the “Start” button to begin sending your document. The printer will scan the document and send it through the connected phone line.
- Confirmation: Wait for the confirmation message or print out indicating that the fax was sent successfully.
Receiving Faxes on Your Brother Printer
Your Brother printer can automatically receive faxes if turned on and connected to a phone line. To ensure you don’t miss any incoming faxes, be mindful of the following:
- Automatic Reception: Set your printer to automatically answer incoming calls and receive faxes. This is done through the fax settings on your printer’s control panel.
- Manual Reception: If you prefer, you can set your printer to manual mode, requiring you to manually accept incoming faxes. This is useful if you share the phone line with voice calls.
- Memory Storage: If your printer is out of paper or turned off, incoming faxes can be stored in memory and printed later.
- Easy Receive: Some Brother models might have an “Easy Receive” function that automatically receives faxes without needing to press any buttons, even in manual mode.
- Ring Delay: You can also set a ring delay on some models. This allows your phone to ring a certain number of times before the Brother machine answers and starts receiving the fax. This gives you time to answer the phone call if it’s not a fax.
Advanced Fax Features and Tips
Brother printers offer a range of features to enhance your faxing experience beyond just sending and receiving. Here are some advanced functionalities and tips to get the most out of your Brother fax machine.
Advanced Features
- Delayed Transmission: Schedule faxes to be sent at a specific time, which is useful for sending documents outside business hours or during off-peak rates.
- Fax Memory and Forwarding: Store incoming faxes in memory if the paper tray is empty or the printer is turned off. You can also forward faxes to another fax number or email address.
- Distinctive Ring Pattern: Assign a unique ring pattern to your fax line, differentiating it from voice calls on a shared line.
- Resolution Adjustment: Adjust the fax resolution (standard, fine, or super fine) to optimize transmission quality based on the document’s detail level.
- Cover Page Composition: Create and save personalized cover pages with your company logo, sender information, and even a brief message.
Tips for Efficient Faxing
- Reduce File Size: For computer-based faxing (PC-Fax), consider compressing documents (like PDFs) to reduce transmission time, especially for lengthy files.
- Error Correction Mode: Enable error correction mode for important documents to ensure accurate transmission. This might slightly slow down the faxing process.
- Fax Confirmation Reports: Enable confirmation reports to receive a printout verifying successful fax transmission.
- Broadcast Faxing: Send the same fax to multiple recipients simultaneously.
- Organize Fax Logs: Utilize the fax logs feature (on some models) to keep track of sent and received faxes with details like date, time, and recipient information.
Remember, these features may vary depending on your specific Brother model. Refer to your user manual or the Brother website for a comprehensive list of functionalities supported by your printer.
Troubleshooting Common Fax Issues
Even with proper setup and maintenance, you might encounter issues while faxing. Here are a few solutions to some common problems:
- Failed Transmission: If a fax fails to send, check the phone line connection and ensure the recipient’s fax number is correct. Also, verify that your printer is not set to ‘Do Not Disturb’ or similar modes.
- Poor Quality Faxes: If faxes are consistently coming out blurred or incomplete, check for low toner levels, clean the scanner glass, and ensure the document is placed correctly.
- Unable to Receive Faxes: Ensure your printer is set to the correct mode for automatic reception. Check for any errors on the display indicating memory full or paper out, and address these issues.
- Busy Signal on Sending or Receiving: This may occur if the receiver’s line is busy or if you are attempting to send a fax at a peak time. To resolve this, try resending the fax at a different time, or if the issue persists, contact your telephone service provider to ensure there are no issues with the line.
Simplify Your Faxing with FaxBurner
While faxing with a Brother printer combines traditional functionality with modern convenience, using the FaxBurner app offers an even simpler solution, allowing you to send and receive faxes electronically, bypassing the need for physical documents or a dedicated phone line.
Fax Burner is especially beneficial for those seeking efficiency and mobility without the complexities of hardware setup.
Embrace FaxBurner for a hassle-free, flexible faxing experience. Try us today!
