[Asterisk-Users] Application Faxing using SIP

[J Poz]

  Thanks for the information. I prefer to try to develop/configure something myself versus using an external provider. I currently use one (have tried another) and there are no guarantees on reliability, timelines, etc. I'm in need of as close to real-time response as possible (assuming the fax machines on the other end are operational). Something like within 5 minutes 85% of the time. My experience with 2 external mailtofax providers so far is terrible. Just yesterday, a simple 1 page fax took 42 minutes to finally send it. Other scenarios were 20, 26 minutes, etc. The provider tells me that they don't gaurantee anything but most of the time sending a single page fax within 5 minutes 80% of the time. I wish I would see that but so far I'm seeing terrible response times from the few I've tried. I also need to know status of fax (in queue, failed, etc) in real-time so my application and react appropriately (send notification to support staff, etc).
   
  I've found one that does have some sort of guarentee by the cost of through the roof and would kill my business model/plan (and the gaurantees are wishy washy). So I think I need to "control" my own destiny.
   
  And this definitely is not anything related to spam fax, etc. - legit business but right now can't fully reveal.
   
  So I'll have to research abit on IAXModem to use it. But your suggestion is a good one. Can you share what Asterisk configuration you use to both receive the iaxmodem feed and interface to the VOIP provider for such a configuration.
   
  Thanks,
  J

Philip Edelbrock <phil at netroedge.com> wrote:
  

On Feb 18, 2006, at 11:35 AM, J Poz wrote:

> I have a specific business problem that I'm hoping someone has 
> ideas and/or has already worked out a solution.
>
> My application needs to be able to automatically create and issue 
> faxes to many different fax machines. The volume is going to be 
> very high. And it is only about sending faxes and not receiving them.
>
> My application is hosted by an ASP but the Linux (Fedora 2) server 
> is mine (dedicated). So the option of having PSTN lines to do faxes 
> is not an option since I don't own nor can put anything in the data 
> center. I found a SIP/VOIP provider that says they do faxing (and I 
> can connect to them using my own device (meaning asterisk or 
> something else if necessary)). Their requirement for faxing to work 
> on their end is to make sure i send them via their voip service 
> using G.711 codec.
>
> So I've done alot of research on faxing and asterisk and hylafax 
> but I' m still at a loss. For starters, what is the architecture 
> that I need?
>
> my application --> QUESTION MARK??? ----> VOIP Provider ---> PSTN 
> ---> Fax Machine.
>
> So first question, what should QUESTION MARK be? Is it just 
> Asterisk or a combination of Asterisk and something like hylafax 
> (fax manager). And depending on that answer, what is the 
> configuration that has to be made on it. Even reference to material 
> that explains the configuration would be very helpful to me at this 
> time.
>
> Thanks in advance for the help,


The missing link might be iaxmodem. It has two interfaces: IAX 
channel for asterisk, and a serial device (in /dev/) which emulates a 
faxmodem. Then, fax away using hylafax. I have tried faxing over 
SIP through a provider (broadvoice) to a coworker's fax on the pstn 
this way, and it worked. I haven't done any testing in volume, though.

So you would have something like:

Doc -> hylafax -> iaxmodem -> * -> voip provider -> pstn -> fax machine


Phil

PS- I suppose if you had multiple SIP accounts with a provider, you 
could create multiple iaxmodems and do things in parallel (assuming 
enough bandwidth and cpu).

PPS- I hope you're not doing fax-spamming with this set up! ;')


		
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