[asterisk-users] 'Traditional' Faxing

[Dave Fullerton]

Greg Cockburn wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> the company I work for has an aging Digital PBX attached to an E1.
> 
> This PBX has a few analogue lines, one of which we use a 'traditional' fax
> machine on.
> 
> I want to upgrade our PBX and Asterisk is almost a perfect fit.
> 
> The only problem I can't seem to find a working solution for is Faxing.
> 
> I don't want to use Hylafax or other similar methodologies.
> 
> I believe there maybe someway to bridge an Analogue FXS port to a channel on
> the E1?
> 
> Basically I want to mimic what we have now.
> 
> 1. Any person can send a fax using the fax machine, and the PBX picks the
> next free channel on the E1.
> 
> 2. A fax call can come over any channel on the E1, and the dialed number is
> matched and sent to the analogue FXS port of the PBX to be received by the
> fax machine.
> 
> Is there anyway I can do this in Asterisk that will work seamlessly?
> 
<snip>

 From what I've heard, I think your best bet is to buy a multi-port 
T1/E1 card for asterisk, put your E1 in one port and a channel bank in 
the other port, then plug your fax extension into an FXS port on the 
channel bank. Since both legs of the call pass through the same E1 
interface card asterisk can bridge the call on the card itself and the 
timing issue should become moot. I have not done this nor have any 
hands-on experience to share, but I have done some research into this in 
the past. This is also the method Fonality recommends for customers of 
their asterisk based system:

http://help.fonality.com/index.php/Fax_Machine_and_Modem_Support_in_PBXtra

-Dave