[Asterisk-Users] asterisk and fax over ip - concept

[Walt Reed]

On Mon, Feb 09, 2004 at 03:51:51PM -0500, William Waites said:
> On Mon, Feb 09, 2004 at 09:31:30PM +0100, Philipp von Klitzing wrote:
> > 
> > Why exactly would hylafax be a "worst case" solution only, why would you 
> > tink that that the Asterisk solution is better at all?
> 
> The "worst case" would be the modem hairpinned into an FXS
> port, not hylafax per se.
> 
> > >  Instead of a fax machine, the people could have a scanner 
> > 
> > Hmpf... I've always found that to be a very bad replacement for an analog 
> > fax, at least as soon as you have to deal with more than 1 page. Plain 
> > old analog fax machines are a very well designed devices...
> 
> I suppose you're right. Perhaps one of those unified
> printer-copier-scanner things might be better, but the
> models that will take multiple input pages start getting
> expensive. 
> 
> I guess it depends whether the people are doing more
> print-to-fax sort of things or feeding the fax machine
> with large amounts of paper...

While this is just starting to get a little OT, there is another option
- but it requires a little change in mindset and work habits.

Instead of blindly faxing, consider setting up a PC with a decent ADF
scanner. Chances are that the document being faxed is going to either be
mailed as well, or just filed. It could also be a standard document that
you fax to many people. The PC could drop the document as a PDF,
multipage TIF, or whatever to a shared folder. The user could then email
the document image, use the PC fax software (like Hylafax), or just
archive the document for future reference. The old paper copy can go
into deep archives (sometimes even offsite - which may be a good thing
from a records keeping aspect.)

Frankly, I hate filing lots of paper. Chances are that I am going to
have to get the damn thing copied for someone, the paper gets lost, etc.
If it's electronic, I can even look at it from home or on the road. If
I'm in a meeting and someone starts questioning the details of a
contract, I can pull the thing up and resolve the question instantly. All
my files are available to me or other people I delegate authority to
access, whenever and wherever needed. 

There was a big push for "paperless" offices, which for the most part
failed. Partly, disk was Very expensive, along with scanners, special
HSM software, etc. It's a LOT more affordable and practical today.