I have more room on my desk. <G>

don

The same physical lines, but *only* if DSL service is installed on
them. Without that qualification it's inaccurate to say that it's the
same lines.

No, it's not. That's precisely why I qualified my statement to say "at
least not the DSL portion of the line, which is what is connected to
your computer."

Nope.  Just use the same phone line that goes to your telephone.  If the
nearest wall jack only has one socket that goes to your telephone, get a
splitter to connect your telephone and the TEL jack on your modem to the
same wall jack.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2459848&cp=2032052.2032075
.2032077.2032088&parentPage=family
Plug into the telephone near the computer and use a short cord from it
to the TEL jack of the modem.  Or plug it into the wall jack and run
separate long cords to your telephone and the TEL jack of your modem.

The analog fax modem acts just like a telephone, so you can plug it into
the same jacks into which you plug your telephone.  The filter/splitter
that separates the voice and DSL bands is either at the entry point to
your house or a separate filter is installed at each endpoint device
(telephone, fax machine, fax modem, burglar alarm, whatever).

You don't need a 2nd telephone line to use fax modems/machines on the
same twisted pair as your DSL service.  However, if you want to do voice
communications over the phone line while you are sending or you want to
leave the fax in constant receive mode to pickup any incoming fax calls,
yes, then you need a 2nd voice line (which could be the POTS service or
could even be VoIP over your DSL broadband connection provided you have
decent upload speed).

'rb' wrote, in part:

No, the fax/modem does NOT have to connect to a non DSL line.  There must
however, be a low pass filter between the DSL service and any phone, fax, or
fax/modem.  Most existing structures to which DSL service is added use a low
pass filter at each phone jack EXCEPT for the jack to which the DSL modem
connects.  SOME DSL installations use a low pass filter at the telephone
system point-of-presence (the location in the structure where the external
telephone network hands the signal over to the internal wiring) and run a
new telephone twisted pair cable to a jack for the exclusive use of the DSL
modem.  This after construction additional wiring is more expensive and less
flexible, and so is rarely used.  A new structure wired for DSL from the
start could have multiple twisted pairs connected to each phone jack and one
of those twisted pairs would be for DSL only.  The additional wiring is more
expensive and less flexible, and so is rarely used.

Example:

You have DSL service.

It is not a 'Bare DSL' service (the line has a telephone number associated,
and is connected to the phone network.)

You have one phone jack in the wall at your computer/DSL modem location.

You add a fax/modem to your computer.

You plug a one into two splitter in the wall jack.

You plug a low pass filter (Z-Blocker/DSL Filter) into one of the splitter
outputs, then connect from the output of the low pass filter to the
fax/modem IN jack.  The low pass filter blocks the DSL signal to eliminate
interference with the operation of a phone or fax.

You connect the other splitter output into the DSL modem.

Your computer continues to connect to your ISP via DSL.

The fax/modem will allow the computer to act as a fax AND, if you wish,
allow dial-up ISP connectivity (if, say, DSL connectivity is lost.)

If you already have a phone at the computer/DSL modem location, then you
might want to use either a second splitter (only one low pass filter is
needed) or connect the phone to the fax/modem OUT jack.  Be aware that you
can not use any phone on the same line (any phone with the same telephone
number) while the fax/modem is in use, and that you should set up the fax
modem options that handle things like call waiting.

Phil Weldon

I agree.

No. See below.

No, not true. What most of call a DSL "line" is not really a separate
line at all. It's a service applied to a regular telephone line.

That DSL "line" can be (and usually is) split into its two
components--the DSL portion which connects to the internet--and the
voice-grade portion which connects to regular voice telephones, fax
machines, modems (not *DSL* modems, but regular fax or voice-grade
modems). That splitting is accomplished by using a special filter on
the voice-grade portion of the line.

When I said the DSL line can not send faxes, I tried to make it clear
that I was talking about the DSL portion of the line--the part
connected to the internet--not the filtered voice portion that *can*
connect to a fax modem (if you have one).