Has anyone gotten Fax to work? Any advise?

[gcmartin3]

Hi, we'd like to begin using the faxing features of our PBX. However, I can't find enough information to get it running.

If someone can just point me to some reference materials, I would appreciate it.

thanks
Greg

 

[rpm10k]

My Hylafax/Avantfax setup

I'll try to help, but as for reference materials, you may be out of luck. It's still a work in progress on PIAF.

Assuming your using a TDM or compatible interface, the main source of info I know of is http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/work-in-progress-hylafax-avantfax-install-faq.369/?t=369
But I'll hit the highlights of how I installed. It differs some from the link but I've done this on 3 systems with %100 success.

cd /root
wget http://pbxinaflash.net/scripts/install-hylafax.tgz
tar -zxvf install-hylafax.tgz
cd hylafax
./install-hylafax.sh

Edit iax.conf (through FreePBX)
Log into the FreePBX control panel with your browser and Click:
Setup -> Extensions -> IAX2
And enter the following:

User Extension: 1100
Display Name: IAXModem
Secret: password
Record Incoming: Never
Record Outgoing: Never
(These steps are from ~/hylafax/FreePBX config.txt and more information is in this file you may need to read)

Edit /etc/iaxmodem/ttyIAX0 and change "peername" from 'IAXmodem' to '1100' then restart the service to pickup the change.

service iaxmodem restart

Edit /var/spool/hylafax/etc/config.ttyIAX0 and add these lines to the end of the file...

#
## AvantFAX configuration
#
FaxrcvdCmd:     bin/faxrcvd.php
DynamicConfig:  bin/dynconf.php
UseJobTSI:      true

Now to download Avantfax...

cd /root
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/avantfax/avantfax-3.1.0.tgz
tar -zxvf avantfax-3.1.0.tgz
cd avantfax-3.1.0

edit rh-prefs.txt find and change these 3 lines...

ROOTMYSQLPWD=passw0rd
HTTPDUSER=asterisk
HTTPDGROUP=asterisk

Then install Avantfax...

./rh-install.sh

Now, because Avantfax installs thinking it's the only app running on your web server, some fixes need to be done.

rm -f /etc/httpd/conf.d/avantfax.conf

Then edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
Find the line "Listen *:80" and add the line "Listen *:8080" (port 8080 can be something else) below it. Then add these lines to the end of the file (this assumes you have not already customized Apache)

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
<Directory "/var/www/html">
allow from all
Options +Indexes
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:8080>
DocumentRoot "/var/www/avantfax"
<Directory "/var/www/avantfax">
allow from all
Options +Indexes
</Directory>
ErrorLog logs/avantfax-error_log
CustomLog logs/avantfax-access_log common
</VirtualHost>

Restart Apache to pick up the changes

service httpd restart

Log into http://yourserversip:8080/admin username:admin password:admin (if memory serves) and setup Avantfax.
It will first make you change the admin password.
Then you need to setup the modem.
The 'Device' needs to be 'ttyIAX0' but the 'Alias' can be whatever you would like.
Then setup users etc....

NOTE: I have had one case where even after restarting the services I still had to reboot the server before it started working.

Should then be good to go. Just go to http://yourserversip:8080 to use the fax part of your system.
Customizing Avantfax (cover pages, etc) and Hylafax are covered in their respective forums.

 

[gcmartin3]

Hi. Thanks so much for the response. We will have a look at what you sent.

regards
Greg

 

[rolfbeethoven]

I followed the instructions above and didn't receive any obvious errors, but I don't understand how it all fits together.

Once I've got it set up as suggested above, if a fax comes into my home phone number, will asterisk detect it and route the call to the 1100 extension? I would like to know what to test for. Thanks.

 

[netm@x]

By following these instructions I was able to install the fax software with no errors. However when try to log into the fax server using http://myip:8080/admin I do get page not displayed. nmap scann did not ditect 8080 is one of the ports taht the server is listening to. Any thoughts ?

 

[radpeter]

Similar problem here, apart from having nmap reporting the 8080 port as attached to http-proxy. Have tried changing the port to 8088, didn't work either.

 

[cosmicwombat]

I used Hylafax directions from...

I used Hylafax directions from this thread and have had good results.

What I really need to do is get with T-38.

Getting FAX working was only an exercise as I send like one FAX a year...personally...

However, it seems that if you understand that how to make it a reliable service, customers want it.

 

[foneman]

Reliable Fax

We have gotten the fax to work for a DEDICATED line sending and receiving so far with no problems. I just cannot get detection to work let's say if you had a PRI with DID's and wanted to use your DID/Extension to detect faxes...any thoughts on that?

 

[powerontech]

The consensus seems to be that you should use Hylafax if you want a reliable fax system. So basically the way Elastix does it.