To ensure both your answering machine and fax work together to receive messages and faxes, they must be connected to each other. The telephone line from the answering machine that is normally plugged into the wall jack should be connected into the external port (EXT.TAM) of the fax machine. The telephone line cord from the wall phone jack should be connected to the line port in the rear of the fax machine. Set the fax ring count to 5 and the answering ring count to 4 or less. The fax machine should be in fax mode and the auto answer light on or with the mode set to Fax depending on the model of your machine.