[asterisk-users] Setting up to reveive faxes.

[Gordon Henderson]

On Sat, 22 Nov 2008, Tilghman Lesher wrote:

> On Saturday 22 November 2008 09:10:39 Gordon Henderson wrote:
>> On Sat, 22 Nov 2008, Noah Miller wrote:
>>> Hi Ken -
>>>
>>>> Hey, all.  When I last was heavily into Asterisk (1.0.x), setting up to
>>>> receive faxes was, well, a PITA, what with having to patch the Asterisk
>>>> install with various driver patches and this, that, and the other.
>>>>
>>>> Is that still true?  Is there a fax HOWTO out there that reflects
>>>> Asterisk 1.4.x?
>>>
>>> Not sure if you mean IP faxing or TDM faxing, but I don't think you'll
>>> need to do any patching.  In general check out:
>>> http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+fax
>>>
>>> For IP faxes, check out the wiki here:
>>> http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+T.38
>>>
>>> AFAIK: 1.4.x can't terminate IP faxes - only pass through, while 1.6.x
>>> can pass through and terminate with the help of spandsp.
>>
>> Does this mean that 1.4 lost an ability that 1.2 currently has? Right now,
>> with 1.2, I use spandsp (or rather the RxFAX application which uses
>> spandsp) to terminate faxes and save them as TIF files, then outside
>> asterisk email them to the appropriate destination... I'm currently
>> looking at moving to 1.4 and this is something that's essential for me...
>> I guess it's time to look deeper into this.
>
> You missed the part about IP faxes.  Yes, you can receive faxes over a Zaptel
> or DAHDI channel on your system.  That feature has not gone away.  It is the
> feature of being able to terminate T.38 faxes that was never in 1.2, isn't in
> 1.4, but is in 1.6.

OK. We were talking about T.38, and I must have missed that.

>  RxFax has never worked with IP faxes.  It requires the
> use of a Zaptel/DAHDI channel.

Er, wrong, and didn't we discuss this some weeks back?

Maybe what you need to say is: "RxFax will never work reliably with IP 
faxes."

Myself and a colleague have sent several faxes via VoIP in the UK between 
servers at the end of ADSL lines at opposite ends of the country, and 
they've worked just fine. It's not something I'd sell or recommend because 
it's not reliable, but it can work.

I also know people who've got FAX machines connected to ATAs VoIP 
connected to PBXs with ISDN lines and those FAX machines work OK too, so 
although it's better IP over a LAN than over the public Internet, it's 
still FAX over IP, as is the case where people are running IAXMODEM on a 
separate PC to the Asterisk box connected to HylaFax...

Gordon