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Using a Physical Fax via ATA

Introduction

Kwebbl provides a built-in Digital Fax solution that works directly from the UC Panel — including sending and receiving faxes, and delivering inbound faxes as PDF to your email. For most users, this is the recommended and supported solution. You can find guides for it here:

If your situation requires a physical fax machine, it is possible to connect one to the Kwebbl platform using an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter).

What you'll need

Before you start, make sure you have the following:

  1. A physical fax machine

  2. A ATA device — Kwebbl has the best experience with:

    • Grandstream HT801

    • Grandstream HT802

    • Cisco ATA 121

    • Cisco ATA 191

  3. A Kwebbl user and SIP account — set up just like any other end device

  4. An inbound call flow that routes calls to the fax user, for example:

    • A dial plan with a transfer to the user

    • Germany only: Or a Direct Dial-in (Durchwahl) pointing directly to the user

Create a user and SIP account in the Company Panel

  1. Log in to the Company Panel.

  2. Navigate to Users and create a new user — something like "Fax" works well as a recognisable name.

  3. Navigate to Devices and click Add.

  4. Under brand, select Other and manually fill in the correct brand and model of your ATA. Click Next.

  5. Give the device a clear, identifiable name (for example "Fax - Reception").

  6. Assign it to the user you just created. Click Create.

  7. Note down the SIP username and SIP password — you'll need these when configuring the ATA.

Configure the ATA device

The exact steps will vary depending on your ATA model, but the key settings are the same across all supported devices:

  1. Open the ATA's web interface

  2. Enter the SIP credentials from the previous step into the ATA's account or line settings.

  3. Under codec settings, enable only the following two codecs and disable everything else:

    • PCMA (G.711 A-law)

    • PCMU (G.711 µ-law)

  1. Save your settings and reboot the ATA if needed.

  2. Check that the ATA registers successfully with the Kwebbl platform.

Optional: T.38 via SIP Trunk (advanced)

Some organisations may want to explore T.38, a protocol designed specifically for fax over IP. T.38 bypasses the Kwebbl PBX and requires a SIP Trunk rather than a standard SIP user account.

If you'd still like to give it a try:

  1. Set up a SIP Trunk in the Provider Panel (refer to your SIP Trunk documentation for the configuration details).

  2. Configure the ATA to use the SIP Trunk credentials instead of the standard SIP user account.

  3. Enable T.38 in the ATA's fax or advanced settings.

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