Faxing and PCI (was Re: [Asterisk-Users] Digium cards, so disappointing !)

[Nicholas Kathmann]

Olivier Krief wrote:
> 2006/4/17, Nicholas Kathmann <nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com 
> <mailto:nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com>>:
>
>
>     I agree with Lee.  I have about 30 machines in production using
>     iaxmodem
>     and hylafax which work perfectly.  Most are running off of T1s,
>     but some
>     are on TDM400 and TDM2400s.  I only use IBM servers (which are about
>     twice the cost for the low end Dells), and have never had to
>     resolve an
>     IRQ problem.  I just looked up the hylafax usage reports on those
>     people
>     running the analog FXOs, and one of them had 390 pages in the last
>     week,
>     only one error, which I would consider acceptable.
>
>     Thanks,
>     Nick
>
> 1. Do you mean Hylafax and Asterisk are installed on the machine and 
> share the same TDM cards ?
> 2. If positive, do you have any extension which is used for both voice 
> and fax ?
> For instance, user Alice receives voice or fax calls on its own 
> extension. When it's a fax, your server detects it and and let Hylafax 
> get the call.
>
> Cheers
> Olivier
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Both hylafax and * are on the same machine and using the same PSTN 
interfaces (whether T1 or TDM).  It uses iaxmodem to communicate between 
the two systems (imagine a softmodem).  I'll create separate extensions 
for the iaxmodems, then either map the numbers (or channels off the TDM 
cards) to dial those extensions.  You can also use the fax extension on 
your default incoming to dial the iaxmodem.  Faxgetty then listens to 
the iaxmodem to receive faxes, and uses hylafax to send them to the 
appropriate email addresses, printers, etc.  In most cases I'll set up 
separate PSTN numbers for incoming faxes, but the fax extension also 
works relatively well.  The only time I've ever seen problems with faxes 
(or modems) is when trying to use a SIP or IAX provider over the 
internet.  To connect the analog fax machines I'll either use a linksys 
PAP2 or Sipura SPA-2100.  I used to use Grandstreams for that, but now 
find that they just randomly unregister themselves and have to be 
restarted before reconnecting.

To do the scenario with both on the same extension, it would just be as 
follows:

[incoming]
s,1,<However you handle your calls>

fax,1,Dial(IAX2/<your iaxmodem extension>)

Thanks,
Nick