Home > Technical Articles > EssentialFax Dialing Rules

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Dialing rules basically specify additional numbers of characters to dial before and after the basic fax number.

Each dialing rules has two parts:

• the part that is dialed before the actual fax number (prefix)
• the part that is dialed after the actual fax number (suffix).

EssentialFax has three dialing rules available for you to use and define:

• Rule 1: (the default) This rule tells EssentialFax to dial the fax number exactly as entered
• Rule 2: Here you can place your rules for dialing local numbers
• Rule 3: Here you can place your rules for dialing long distance numbers

Each of these dialing rules applies to all phone book entries and faxes for which it is used. Each phone book entry/fax can have only one of the three dialing rules.

For instance if you define the local dialing rules as having a "9," (the number nine followed by a comma) as the prefix, then all phone book entries or faxes using the local dialing rules will be dialed with a "9," before the actual fax number.

If you define the long distance dialing rules as having a "1," (one followed by a comma) as the prefix, then all phone book entries or faxes using the long distance dialing rules will be dialed with a "1," before the actual fax number.

If you change one of the dialing rules, then all faxes which use that dialing rule will use the new changes. (The dialing rules are global in nature - that is, if you change the long distance dialing rule the changes are applied to all numbers flagged to use the long distance dialing rule.)

Some examples of when this is helpful:

• You may need to pause at a certain point while dialing the number, for instance to wait for a dialtone. There are certain characters to use for this ( see Pause While Dialing ) and these could be entered in the prefix part of the dialing rules.
• You may need to use a calling card or credit card when dialing long distance. This could be placed into the prefix part of the long distance dialing rules. ( see Using calling cards or credit cards )
• You may need to disable call waiting. Usually entering *70 or 70# in the phone number or the dialing rule prefix will disable call waiting.