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Distinctive Ring
Distinctive Ring is a function of your Brother machine that allows a person with one line to receive fax and voice calls through two different phone numbers on that one line. Brother uses the term "Distinctive Ring," but telephone companies market the service under a variety of names, such as Custom Ringing, Personalized Ring, Smart Ring, Ident-A-Ring, Ident-A-Call, Data Ident-A-Call, Teen Ring, and SimpleBiz Fax & Alternate Number Ringing. This service establishes a second telephone number on the same line as your existing telephone number, and each number has its own ring pattern. Typically, the original number rings with the standard ring pattern and is used for receiving voice calls, and the second number rings with a different ring pattern and is used for receiving faxes.
- You must pay for your telephone company’s Distinctive Ring service before you program the machine to work with it.
- Contact your telephone company for availability and rates.
What does your telephone company’s ‘Distinctive Ring’ do?
Your telephone company’s Distinctive Ring service allows you to have more than one number on the same telephone line. If you need more than one telephone number, it is cheaper than paying for an extra line. Each telephone number has its own distinctive ring pattern, so you will know which telephone number is ringing. This is one way to have a separate telephone number for your machine.
Contact your telephone company for availability and rates.
What does Brother’s ‘Distinctive Ring’ do?
The Brother machine has a Distinctive Ring feature that allows you to use your machine to take full advantage of the telephone company’s Distinctive Ring service. The new telephone number on your line can only receive faxes.
You must pay for your telephone company’s Distinctive Ring service before you program the machine to work with it.
Do you have Voice Mail?
If you have Voice Mail on the telephone line where you will install your new machine, there is a strong possibility that Voice Mail and the machine will conflict with each other while receiving incoming calls. However, the Distinctive Ring feature allows you to use more than one number on your line, so both Voice Mail and the machine can work together without any problems. If each one has a separate telephone number, neither will interfere with the other’s operations.
If you decide to get the Distinctive Ring service from the telephone company, you must register the new Distinctive Ring pattern they give you. This is so your machine can recognize its incoming calls.
You can change or cancel the Distinctive Ring pattern at any time. You can switch it off temporarily, and turn it back on later. When you get a new fax number, make sure you reset this feature.
Before you choose the ring pattern to register
You can register only one Distinctive Ring pattern with the machine. Some ring patterns cannot be registered. The ring patterns below are supported by your Brother machine. Register the one your telephone company gives you.
| Ring Pattern | Rings |
|---|
| 1 | short-short or long-long |  |
| 2 | short-long-short |  |
| 3 | short-short-long |  |
| 4 | very long |  |
- Ring Pattern #1 is often called Short-Short and is the most commonly used.
- If the ring pattern you received is not on this chart, contact your telephone company and ask for one that is shown.
- The machine answers only calls to its registered number.
- The first two rings are silent on the machine. This is because the fax must <<listen>> to the ring pattern (to compare it to the pattern that was ‘registered’). (Other telephones on the same line ring.)
- If you program the machine correctly, it recognizes the registered ring pattern of the ‘fax number’ within two ring patterns and then answer with a fax tone. When the ‘voice number’ is called, the machine does not answer.