[asterisk-users] Fax solution for Asterisk

[Gordon Henderson]

On Thu, 22 May 2008, Benny Amorsen wrote:

> "Steve Totaro" <stotaro at totarotechnologies.com> writes:
>
>> Then check out Hylafax and IAXmodem.  Hylafax has alot of client apps
>> too.  As I said before, it is CPU intensive, so you may need separate
>> machines to handle fax.  A direct crossover cable for network is the
>> best to eliminate any latency.
>
> If you run iaxmodem on the Asterisk server, you can use something like
> termnetd to provide a virtual serial port to Hylafax over the network.
> Then latency, jitter, and packet loss becomes much less of a problem.

Something that's always confused me - IAXmodem is built on spandsp. RxFAX 
is also built on spandsp. RxFAX gets one step closer to the data stream 
(no copper/IP in the way), so why are people using (& suggesting) Hylafax 
over RxFAX?

(and I'm just talking about receiving faxes here - Can see where there's a 
case for using something clever to send faxes, but I've yet to have any 
clients who don't have a traditional FAX machine - the paper-less office is 
still 20 years away ;-)

Now it may be that the post fax reception processing is cpu intensive 
(converting it to a TIFF/PDF, storing it, emailling it, etc.), but I've 
not actually had any issues with this - although admittedly, I'm only 
dealing with 1 or 2 fax receptors per site.

Just thinking out loud really...

Gordon