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[SLUG] FAQs about Fax

To: "Jeff Waugh" <jdub@nospam.aphid.net>
Subject: [SLUG] FAQs about Fax
From: "Dave Kempe" <david@nospam.solutionsfirst.net>
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 22:22:01 +1000
Cc: "Slug@nospam.Slug. Org. Au" <slug@nospam.slug.org.au>
Importance: Normal
Sender: owner-slug@nospam.newtreno.spectrum.com.au
Hey sluggers, attached is my first draft faxing FAQ.
Flame away...

FAQs about Fax

A Frequently Asked Questions about faxing and linux.

For a disclaimer of sorts about this content, see the bottom.
No disclaimer on the humour tho :-P

				Contents
			Useful URLS at bottom.

__General__
* Whats this faxing stuff?
Like it or not, faxes have not gone away as a means of communication for
many companies and people. There is still somehting about paper, people just
can't seem to give it up. Times are changing tho, the rise of email is
defintly bitten into the market and mindshare of faxing. Be it for record
keeping or for fax spam, people still need faxing...

* What options are there?
Quite a few, faxing basically is a digital to analogue conversion so many
things are possible. As for ones that work, well.
Three that I have found for Linux, Hylafax, Mgetty + Sendfax, and just new
Fax2Send. My recommendation is for Hylafax due to its maturity and
flexibilty and decent Windows clients. For me, Windows clients are a must as
Linux isn't making it onto the desktop of most small businesses any time
soon. The Linux based client for Hylafax are decent too. Much scripting
potential. This also goes for Mgetty. I must admit I only just found
Fax2Send and have no experience with it. If any has tried it I;d love to
compare notes. Keep in mind that it is not totally free, as opposed to the
other two solutions. I have had most experience with Hylafax after checking
out its feature set and deciding it was worth it - I have never looked back.

* What hardware do I need?
A very basic Linux box will handle most faxing tasks very reliably. Not too
much RAM, better than 486 etc. A decent modem is probably the biggest
requirement, or for more demanding applications, a few or a bank of modems.
This is where it is worth spending money on if you want a decent faxing box.
In my experience most Rockwell based modems are very good for faxing, all
the 56K ones seem to support Class 1 and 2 faxing at least. For example, a
Dynalink 56k External (never get PCI/winmodems!!) is autodetected by
Hylafax, and the correct command for flow control, fax variable and other
stuff are automatically installed. Dynalink are a fairly cheap brand but
anything that uses the stock Rockwell chipset should do. For larger things,
I know at least Hylafax can support nearly unlimited amounts of modems, I
have heard people quote sending thousands of faxes a day on multiple modems
and having the whole thing run nicely. Keep in mind that the fax needs to
get converted to the outgoing format so this parsing of the file can be
resource intensive for large faxouts.

__Hylafax__
* Whats it good for?
A unix based faxing solution. Great range of clients (web, email, windows
printers, linux command line, java), excellent "self-healing" modem drivers,
all sorts of of other features. A fully feature fax server really! Receiving
faxes is good too, although I haven't done alot of it, there are nearly as
many ways to receive as to send.
* What does it suck at?
Some things. Not the best for small jobs. Can't beat printing and doing by
hand for simple one page faxes. Depending on how far away the fax machine
is! Lots of companies prefer printed copies of outgoing faxes anyway. So for
smaller jobs I find Hylafax can get passed over. The very newest beta is now
fixed so it work with Redhat6.2 without stuffing around with libtiff
versions - keep that in mind if you have Redhat 6.2.
* I need help with Hylafax!
Check the webpage and and mailing list archive - the support is very good,
many people use this software. Of course source is available, so you can
check that out if you are desperate :)

__Mgetty + sendfax__
* Whats it good for?
Simple fax server. I haven't had that much experience with it after giving
up trying to get it working. You should be able to get it working with
windows clients, and a range of other clients.
* Whats it suck at?
Getting working... um comparitively for the features of Hylafax vs Mgetty +
sendfax, it just ain't worth installing I reckon. Depends how many systems
you have to install and support. ATM I have about 10 different Hylafax
installs around Sydney to look after, sending from 20 - 2000 faxes a month,
support is minimal. Mgetty would probably be the same, but the setup for me
at least was more difficult for less features.
* I need help with Mgetty + sendfax!
Dig around on google, theres plenty of info.


__Other__
* I have a client who want to use their linux box for faxing from their
Windows desktop.
I use Hylafax (RH6.x) and WHFC. This seems to be the most popular client
config atm. WHFC is pretty nice client, supporting all the faxes queues (in,
out, done), a decent printer driver and even ODBC for address books. The
cover page creation is a bit tricky with this setup, but its the best you
are going to get. Following the steps in the tutorial wasn't too hard, and I
had a cover page looking very nice with all the right variables in place
fairly easily once I had the right tools. The rpms for Hylafax and adding a
modem takes about 20mins all up on a decent machine. Compiling from source
takes a bit longer. (Duh!) But really, the Hylafax/WHFC combo works quite
well. If everyone ODBCed the most popular PIMS out there we could do more
funky intergration, but hey that may come...


* I want to be able to recieve faxes and have them emailed to me in my
favorite picture format.
This is possible with most fax systems. Just a matter of setting up the
modem/s to listen for faxes, run the fax thru a few conversion tools, and
mail it off to you. Hylafax can do this nicely, I'm sure mgetty can as well.
Tiff seems to be a popular but difficult format. Popular cos multipage image
formats are hard to come by, difficult cos there are so many formats. Keep
this in mind when dealing with TIFF.

* I have some other suggestions about faxing.
Great, you can tell me, dave@nospam.solutionsfirst.net or you can talk to the
hylafax creators. I prob can't do much except discuss things with you... :)
If you have a great idea, tell someone, they'll probably dissuade you first,
if that doesn't work, it may be great after all.

__Useful links__
Ask Slashdot: Linux Fax Servers w/ WinTel Clients?
http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/99/07/31/0327212.shtml
Useful discussion from real world people.

Fax2Send
http://www.fax2send.com/f2sindex.html
Something I haven't tried. Anyone?

Mgetty+Sendfax Archive/Documentation Centre
http://alpha.greenie.net/mgetty/

Hylafax
http://www.hylafax.org

Google.
http://www.google.com
Best search engine for anything really.

Hope that helps,

Dave
dave@nospam.solutionsfirst.net


__Disclaimer__
This is all just an attempt by one person to lay down some structured
*opinions* on faxing. If your experience suggests other than that contained
herein, please feel free to get in touch, this document is open to
ammendments.

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