Thank you for the quick replies. Since I only need to receive faxes occasionally, I'll follow your advice and connect the fax only when I need it.
I suppose that eventually, if I decide to get a cell phone then I'll just use that for voice and I could leave the existing land line hooked up to the fax. I use the same phone line for dial-up internet as well, but I'm not going to need to use the fax the same time as the internet.