POTS based incoming FAX to multiple emails

[Bitnetix]

I have a client with POTS/T1 based phone lines going to an interface card with DIDs for their extensions and dedicated DIDs for each person's FAX machine. They want those dedicated FAX DIDs to go to email addresses instead of actual FAX machines (a move I agree with).

I know I can do this with hylafax, but thing is - there are 80+ of these extensions, and I'm sure there has got to be a better way than 80 virtual iaxmodems and hylafax/avantfax.

Is there a way to set up a per-extension email address to have FAXes sent to rather than a system-wide default using nvdetect/txfax/rxfax or any other simpler solution than 80+ iaxmodems?

 

[Phone_User]

So do you have 80+ DID's? If you do you can create 80+ inbound routes, and set the email address for each inbound route using NvFaxDetect.

I would think if you have that kind of volume that you would want to run Hylafax with your 80+ virtual modems.

I have never done this but I know hylafax can scan a fax and figure out who to email it by extension or phone number. Try this link http://www.hylafax.org/content/Handbook:Server_Operation:Sending_Faxes#Email-To-Fax_Configuration

 

[Bitnetix]

Yes, the DIDs are available and some are in use today to dedicated FAX lines through a set of POTS and channelized T.

My first thought was to go with nvfaxdetect, but I must admit that I haven't played with it beyond a system-wide setting for our own company's published FAX number (which is not DID specific). Upon further examination, I see the FAX settings in the incoming route section, not the extension setting, which is where I was looking for it, so man, do I feel stupid!

Thanks. I think you've helped me jumpstart myself enough to be able to do what I need to do. I'll go investigate further.

 

[Bitnetix]

I'm at my wit's end and fear that I've been going in circles (which is fine if you want to win a horse race). I blame the fact that I've been god awful busy for the past few weeks and haven't gotten but six hours of sleep or less every night since mid-May.

I just want inbound FAX to work without dealing with hylafax virtual modems and avantfax. As simple as dedicated incoming DIDs go to dedicated email addresses (ie, dialing 123-4567 goes to [email protected] and dialing 123-7890 goes to [email protected]) for 80 DIDs.

I've installed app_nv_backgroundetect and app_nv_faxdetect to our dev Asterisk server. I have incoming routes set with NVfax as the detection type. I have extensions set to "system" and email addresses set to what they should be in the route.

I send a FAX. I see it show up, nvfax fires off, RxFax fires, a TIFF file is created in /var/spool/asterisk/fax, and then BLAM! the tiff file never gets bigger than 8 bytes (and is empty). A PDF gets created (of 1 byte in size) and emailed. Everything works great except that the stupid thing is empty. And apparently it's not actually accepting the FAX, because the FAX machine tries again.

If Hylafax and Avantfax are requirements to make this work, then that's fine, but I can only assume I'm missing something in the bit between properly answering the FAX call and properly getting the FAX data and I'm throwing my hands up.

 

[jroper]

Hi

You may want to take a look at this, it's commercial - except for the first one which is free.

http://docs.digium.com/FAX/fax_for_asterisk_admin_manual.pdf

However, it might easier this way, writing a bit of custom dialplan to email the recipients.

Avantfax is another solution, but for 80 accounts, that's a lot of maintenance, and a lot of IAX modems.

Joe

 

[Bitnetix]

Yes - avantax for 80 IAXmodems seems like such a serious waste of time and energy to me. On the other hand, so is running around the way I have been. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and have it go that way after all...

Still, I have the feeling that there is some obvious step I've neglected to perform that lets me actually accept FAXes. I can answer and route empty PDFs properly, it's just getting the PDF to contain the FAX that's missing.

 

[jroper]

I'd be concerned about running 80 iaxmodems, and doing asterisk stuff as well - we need to add a fist full of modems, and see what happens to processor loads.

Joe

 

[Phone_User]

I'm at my wit's end and fear that I've been going in circles (which is fine if you want to win a horse race). I blame the fact that I've been god awful busy for the past few weeks and haven't gotten but six hours of sleep or less every night since mid-May.

I just want inbound FAX to work without dealing with hylafax virtual modems and avantfax. As simple as dedicated incoming DIDs go to dedicated email addresses (ie, dialing 123-4567 goes to [email protected] and dialing 123-7890 goes to [email protected]) for 80 DIDs.

I've installed app_nv_backgroundetect and app_nv_faxdetect to our dev Asterisk server. I have incoming routes set with NVfax as the detection type. I have extensions set to "system" and email addresses set to what they should be in the route.

I send a FAX. I see it show up, nvfax fires off, RxFax fires, a TIFF file is created in /var/spool/asterisk/fax, and then BLAM! the tiff file never gets bigger than 8 bytes (and is empty). A PDF gets created (of 1 byte in size) and emailed. Everything works great except that the stupid thing is empty. And apparently it's not actually accepting the FAX, because the FAX machine tries again.

If Hylafax and Avantfax are requirements to make this work, then that's fine, but I can only assume I'm missing something in the bit between properly answering the FAX call and properly getting the FAX data and I'm throwing my hands up.

Did you install Ward' fax stuff? I remember this happening and it was a conflict with the fax context. I think I had two, one in extensions.conf and one in extensions.custom.conf.

I'm not sure but double check your inbound context. I'm sure you will see somthing odd and be able to fix it.

 

[Bitnetix]

Did you install Ward' fax stuff?

This is on a development box which was completely scrogged and reinstalled from scratch for this very testing purpose at this time, but I suppose it's possible that someone else added it while researching the problem. I'll take a closer look when I'm more awake. I actually slept 14 hours last night! :clapb:

 

[Bitnetix]

Ward's fax stuff is not installed, and it's not a dialplan issue. The rxfax application is properly being called. Adding debug information to it consistently gives me the following:

Fax receive not successful - result (50) Disconnected after permitted retries.

At this point, I'm about ready to punt and get a commerical fax to email service for these guys and cover the cost myself.

 

[Phone_User]

If Ward's stuff is not installed it will not work. Follow Ward's fax install info and it should work. You need to get the proper NVfax detect installed.

 

[Bitnetix]

I highly disagree. "Ward's stuff" might mean different things to different people, but Ward's stuff, to me, is predominately dial plan work. spandsp, ghostscript nvfaxdetect and so forth are configured on the machine. I've started to think that it's a line issues, since I finally managed to get one page of a two page fax this afternoon.

So I'm pretty sure this has become a non-PIAF issue at this point (which REALLY helps my sanity, since this was driving me crazy) and turns into something hardware related (which is much easier for me to deal with).