Fax

[ednunnemaker]

Ok I know I will probably get heat from this question, please keep in mind I am fairly new to the Asterisk world. I am trying to get one of my POTS lines to be answered by the PIAF server for incoming faxes, I would like to have it receive the faxes and then email them to me. My voice mail is getting emailed to me so at least I know that part works. If I dial 666 I get a message that says this user is unavailable. I'm not sure if this "fax" thing is part of the requested fax solutions or something different. I have searched far and wide on several different sites and I either hear it won't work or it should work "out of the box". From what I have read, I am assuming the VOIP faxing is the won't work and the POTS faxing should work "out of the box". Could someone enlighten me on this and maybe clarify things. I have spent 2 days working on this and I just can't take it anymore. By the way you guys at PIAF have your stuff together, I have installed several different "versions" and so far yours has been the most stable. Thank you for all the hard work. I plan on using the asterisk environment in my office eventually, so I'm trying to nail down all the quirks by mid Jan 08. I think I have most everything else worked out.

System:
software=PIAF
card=TDM400P (2 x FXO)
processor=1.7 AMD
Ram=2 gigs
hard drive= 120 gig SATA

 

[jroper]

Hi

There have been a few posts about faxing.

Faxing has not been included as standard, nor will it be, The idea is to be able to add the different products as you need them via scripts that are being created as we speak.

Fax as yet has not been built for PiaF, however, Ward has writtten to Hylafax to ask them if they can show us how they install their product, which we then can then include as an addon.

Joe

 

[ednunnemaker]

Thank you

Thank you for the reply.

 

[TheShniz]

POTS faxing should work "out of the box"

Has anyone been able to get fax tone detection working on analog lines to route to an analog extension?

I've set the detection type to Zaptel and pause to 3, but the system never hears the fax.

 

[TheShniz]

Bumpity... anybody?

I'm *really* needing this now for a small church, for which I'm donating/pro-bono.
(I already installed Hylafax/IAXModem/AvantFax (and it worx), but is not a realistic/viable solution... they really need the trusty 'old fax machine).

::updated::
I should note: this is w/ PiaF 1.1 using Sangoma A200 w/ HWEC & latest Wanpipe drivers (working very well for voice)

 

[l3iodeez]

I have set up a neat solution that may help you Shniz. I use hylafax/iaxmodem for incoming faxes on my POTS fax line. I have a splitter on the line with one end going to my PBX and the other to my physical fax machine. Then people in my office are able to send faxes using the old-timey fax machine by just dropping some paper in the ADF and hitting send. This is good because I will never be able to teach people to scan to pdf and then send via a PC. It also allows me to use the print-to-fax feature of my all-in-one machine. For receiving I have a dedicated email address that everyone in the office can access through Thunderbird. In this way I have fully paperless faxing, and also the capability for sending faxes in a single step, just like the old days.

The only problem I have is that sometimes a fax will cut off in the middle of a page. This seems to happen when the fax is sent from certain machines, and will even happen at the exact same point in the page on multiple attempts. Most faxes are received without issues.

I am using Zaptel detection with pause at 5, I had problems If I set it lower.

 

[TheShniz]

I appreciate your response, as this is still a standing request with them (I've got them on an old 1.2 build atm). Anyways, I've done exactly what you said, and this fixes things up perfectly for the outbound... the issue still remains tho on the receiving end. The reality is, fax via email isn't really an option for them.

 

[l3iodeez]

In that case what you need in an FXS module on your zaptel card. Then you can just use that as your fax extension and you are set. Just to be sure, this is all so that you can share a line between fax and voice right? because you could always just dedicate a POTS line to the fax.

I just wish that faxing would go the way of the dino already.