[Asterisk-Users] Which asterisk-friendly cards are fax-capable?

[Lee Howard]

trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com wrote:

>Perhaps Lee can comment on exactly how 'development grade' it really is,
>perhaps even cite some test cases where people have used it on larger
>scale operations (ie larger than a home users 1-2 times a month or
>less).
>

According to sourceforge, there have currently been 68 downloads of the 
software.  As there have been four releases, I suspect that many of 
those were repeat offenders coming back for updates.

IAXmodem is merely a bridge between libiax2 and spandsp (the DSP part, 
not the txfax/rxfax Asterisk applications).  Both libiax2 and spandsp 
have been through years of exposure already, and those are, for the most 
part, to be considered production-grade code.  IAXmodem does use a 
relatively new feature in spandsp (the T.31 DCE) to produce a Class 1 
modem, and that part has had relatively little exposure in comparison 
to, say, the V.29 modem in spandsp.

In *my* usage of IAXmodem I've sent and received hundreds of faxes with 
it in development between IAXmodem and regular modems and IAXmodem and 
fax machines.  In my usage of IAXmodem in "real world" production 
purposes I've sent probably a few hundred faxes and received maybe a 
little less than a hundred.

I've not entirely dumped my Patton 2977 installations for mostly one 
major reason:  spandsp doesn't yet support V.17 (14400 bps) fax 
reception very well.  V.29 seems fine for the most part (I am 
troubleshooting the one exception that I know of).  Once spandsp 
supports V.17 fax reception well I'll then be on a fast track to 
replacing my Patton installations and using IAXmodem instead.  At that 
point I'll be able to say it's "production-grade" code because I'll 
actually be using full-blown on production systems.

We must not confuse "developer-grade" with "unstable".  And 
"production-grade" does not mean "stable", either.  Currently IAXmodem 
is "developer-grade" because it's simply not had enough exposure for it 
to be called otherwise.  Also, the documentation is only to be found 
within the README and other files within the tarball and there probably 
is some "polish" that I'd like to see done before I start promoting it 
as "production-grade".  But, none of this is due to any "instability".  
(I interpret "unstable" to mean that the software is known to have 
unpredictable results.  I would never have even released IAXmodem 
publicly in the first place if this were the case.)

Lee.