fax function for normal SIP users

[phil_discount]

Hello,

i'm looking for a way to send and receice fax.
at the moment we've got normal analog fax devices connected at a pbx system from nortel networks. vicidial should replace the nortel pbx.

i bought a Allnet all7902 SIP/analog changer - on this device i can register a SIP user.
now its possible to make and receive calls with a analog device over SIP but i cannot fax. the fax is coming in through E1 sangoma 104de (fax enabled) and routed to the SIP user.
the fax is ringing and i receive the error in CLI - device busy.

my first question is it possible to fax through SIP and are there further configuration in sip.conf to enable fax?

we've got 10 fax devices over more company sites and they should work migration to vicidial (-: perhaps there's another much better way than buying a 40$ changer from SIP to analog

regards
philip

EDIT: i have to say there is a IAX2 connection between vicidial server and a standalone asterisk using sangoma a104de for incoming and outgoing calls/fax

[williamconley]

fax is not even close to being part of vicidial

look at BlueBox or any of the asterisk fax solutions, but do not be surprised if fax in asterisk does not work for you.

fax in freeswitch, however, is supposed to work well.

or use RingCentral (not cheap, but good) or Vitelity (never used them, but theoretically cheaper than RingCentral).

[phil_discount]

ok, the only really solution is fax2email and email2fax?
i think everybody can work with this solution.

does anybody know a good software which works with asterisk 1.4 and opensuse 11.3?

regards
philip

[williamconley]

asterisk does not enter the equation. This is for EMAIL. has nothing to do with telephone service. Fax2email and email2fax requires only moderate knowledge of any one of 100 email packages, and/or php (php pear has a nice programmable email generator).

Most email2fax systems simply accept a pdf as the fax and allow you to email to the fax# at the provider to send. Some will put the "body" of the email as the "cover sheet". (the pdf, of course, would be an "attachment" that would get faxed)

[DhwaniTechnologies]

I don't see a reason for you to use Vicidial at all, unless you have some call center agents, although Vicidial can prove to be an excellent PBX solution if you know what you're doing (we've done that in the past).

I feel that something like FreePBX would be a better option for an office PBX, it has integrated fax2email features. As far as email2fax is concerned, we have spent far too much time experimenting with Hylafax and Avantfax (web UI for Hylafax) and although the prospects seemed promising, the results were disappointing, probably because we were trying to deal with some non-standard telephone lines and hardware.

I would really suggest either experimenting with Hylafax if you have lots of time and Linux+Asterisk experience or pay some money for a commercial solution. Google for them and you will find lots. Good luck.

[phil_discount]

i don't know why i shouldn't use vicidial as normal pbx. now everything works fine.
a second system means additional server, additional backup, routing between the two systems (agents/admin places) ... the last thing what we need is a fax solution.
where is the problem by using email2fax and fax2email? i don't understand.

regards philip

[williamconley]

not a problem using it. just not related to vicidial or asterisk. can certainly live on the same server, but the software will not "invoke" any asterisk functions to send an email.

we have solutions such as this installed in many servers, but not often in Vicidial (as most clients tend to guard the vicidial cpu against any extra usage). Most OTHER servers can spike CPU to create or send a PDF/email without penalty, but with Vicidial, you have to be sure there is no interference. Any cheap P4 or even a VMWare machine can make and send fax2email. You can even do it from your desktop.

That being said, if you have no load issues and do not anticipate any, there's no reason not to use the vicidial server as an email server, too. and as the control mechanism behind your email2fax system. just doesn't happen to be related to asterisk/vicidial unless you want to use the data in the databases (but that's a mysql link, not an asterisk function).

[phil_discount]

does solutions for email2fax and fax2email work over SIP or only with E1/T1/analog

[williamconley]

You're not listening Phil. It's NOT a phone call. It's an EMAIL. Thus the phrase "fax2email". The FAX goes to the provider (Ringcentral or any other provider of this service). Then they EMAIL to you. (Inbound). OR You EMAIL to the provider, then they send the fax (outbound). NO call on your system ever occurs.

[phil_discount]

i'm listening but its not my native language (-:
now i understand .. thanks william!
i will test our provider in europe and i have to test if its possible to transmit an incoming fax over a SIP line to the fax provider ..

[williamconley]

if you can find a fax2email provider that will charge a very small monthly fee plus per minute for faxing ... you'll save yourself a large quantity of hair-pulling trying to install fax service in asterisk.

also: if you find out that faxing is not a great idea or does not get used a lot ... you will have wasted a lot of time setting up a server that gets virtually no use. on the other hand, if the fax2email service is stable but does not get used a lot ... that is fairly cost-effective and could easily be up and running in about 30 minutes. if you end up using it a lot ... you have lots of time to build a real fax server (PBX in a flash / Trixbox / BlueBox ... some ready built solution may be helpful in this regard).

[cris52]

if you can find a fax2email provider that will charge a very small monthly fee plus per minute for faxing ... you'll save yourself a large quantity of hair-pulling trying to install fax service in asterisk.

also: if you find out that faxing is not a great idea or does not get used a lot ... you will have wasted a lot of time setting up a server that gets virtually no use. on the other hand, if the fax2email service is stable but does not get used a lot ... that is fairly cost-effective and could easily be up and running in about 30 minutes. if you end up using it a lot ... you have lots of time to build a real fax server (PBX in a flash / Trixbox / BlueBox ... some ready built solution may be helpful in this regard).

_____
Agreed, however there are several fax2email services out there... can you recommend any in particular that I should take a look at?

[phil_discount]

i'm using www.fax.de in germany for faxing in whole europe

[cris52]

Cool- thank you. I will try in hopes it will work for London too.

[williamconley]

I listed ringcentral and vitelity in my first post. dunno if they do uk, though.