# Slow fax transmission

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-fax-transmission/524646>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 12, 2010, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-fax-transmission/524646 "2010-01-12T10:46:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-fax-transmission/524646/1 "2010-01-12T10:46:39Z")

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I have a generic internal 56kbps modem that I use for sending and receiving faxes from my Vista computer. Problem is that it is too slow when sending a fax compared to my dedicated fax machine, and the image quality isn’t any better. I reduced fax quality to draft but the fax transmission was only marginally faster while the document was practically unreadable.

Also I had the same problem with various combinations of computers, operating systems and different brands of modems. Always they were way slower than dedicated fax machines.

Are there any settings I could tweak to make it faster?

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**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-fax-transmission/524646/2 "2010-01-12T13:57:13Z")

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Are you testing the exact same document? Fax compression is very basic. If the page has a lot of graphics or text then it will take a lot longer than a page with little text or graphics. A background image or watermark makes things much worse.

The fax protocol is something of a nightmare of 6 or 7 different protocols and revisions. There are also different classes. You want to use Class 2.0, not 1 or 2. Fax machines are notoriously unreliable and picky about whom they can send/receive with and at what speeds. Your modem might just not be able to do the faster protocol. Or during the handshake process your modem and a fax machine cant agree on a speed and protocol so they just fall back to an older one. Without the logs its hard to say whats going on.

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**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-fax-transmission/524646/3 "2010-01-12T17:11:58Z")

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Thanks. 🙂

Yes, I compare the same exact pages, when sent through my Epson all-in-one machine it takes less than half the time. Also the slow speed occurs only when sending, it receives faxes at normal speed so I don’t think it is a handshake protocol thing.

I also found some registry tweaks but they are mostly modem-specific and will require a lot of trial and error. It is too much pain in the ass to troubleshoot so I guess I’ll have to live with my slow fax.

Unfortunately people here in Greece are not very comfortable with e-mail and still use fax a lot

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**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-fax-transmission/524646/4 "2010-01-13T00:40:47Z")

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Do you see any logs here:

%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows NT\MSFax

or here

C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Windows NT\MSFax\ActivityLog