Soft T38 fax

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gchiu

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#101664 5-May-2012 21:58

Has anyone tried this soft T.38 fax software ? http://www.t38faxvoip.com/

I installed it and registered with 2talk. However, the fax I sent failed.
I tried to register with VFX and failed.
I then setup an extension and registered with my open VFX asterisk server over a Hamachi VPN. However, using either T.38 or g711 audio fails sending to a VFX virtual fax number. I sent a text fax to my home phone and can hear fax tones so it is sending out.

Also the fax console crashes when I submit a fax ( over Hamachi ) but did not do so when I used 2talk.

I suspect it's not worth the US$71 for a license!

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#620312 6-May-2012 05:57

You can send and receive faxes with Outlook and possibly other with 2talk.
Works perfect with 2talk.

gchiu

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#620328 6-May-2012 08:58

I presume that you are talking about email to fax and fax to email as Outlook is not a sip client. But I'm looking for direct faxing.

nate

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#620438 6-May-2012 14:03

gchiu: I presume that you are talking about email to fax and fax to email as Outlook is not a sip client. But I'm looking for direct faxing.

Be prepared for hours of frustration.

In my experience, faxing over VoIP is a temperamental beast. In a client's business, we would often get them to keep their analogue fax line as a backup, and because we didn't want to spend hours trying to get the damn thing going.

I know this isn't helpful, but good luck anyway.

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#620451 6-May-2012 14:14

That software works brilliantly, I use it for both inbound and outbound T.38 faxing, it's probably one of the better apps around and can't be beaten pricewise.

I can't offer any specific advice for other carriers but know it works fine on my network.

gchiu

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#620466 6-May-2012 14:48

That's encouraging. I am going to post a support question on their forums to see how to get mine working.

grant_k

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#620468 6-May-2012 14:50

When running a business which depended on a reliable fax service, we always kept a dedicated Analogue line just for this purpose. There really isn't any way around it until such time as everyone (including medical/health practitioners, lawyers et al) finally ditch their faxes and move into the 21st century.

gchiu

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#620499 6-May-2012 15:41

Most medical practitioners in this country get their results via HL7, but despite this many are not yet able to receive documents in this way, likely because of the costs involved. So, for them fax remains the way that documents are transmitted. There is an initiative in the USA to use secure "email" http://directproject.org/content.php?key=overview but who knows when that will be taken up here, and whether we still have to pay 3rd party vendors to host the portals.

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grant_k

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#620512 6-May-2012 15:57

gchiu: Most medical practitioners in this country get their results via HL7, but despite this many are not yet able to receive documents in this way, likely because of the costs involved. So, for them fax remains the way that documents are transmitted. There is an initiative in the USA to use secure "email" http://directproject.org/content.php?key=overview but who knows when that will be taken up here, and whether we still have to pay 3rd party vendors to host the portals.

I just think it's quite amusing that doctors, lawyers et al are comfortable that faxes are "secure" when in fact the phone line can be tapped into at the grey post just outside their premises, at the termination cabinet down the road, the exchange, etc, etc.

Whereas by using Https: protocol to your mail server, you have 128-bit encryption. This same protocol is deemed secure enough for internet banking, yet people don't trust it?

It strikes me as ironic, that's all...

gchiu

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#620525 6-May-2012 16:31

Actually the irony is that doctors, lawyers etc take their advice from IT experts and then formulate policy based on this. So, doctors in the USA are not supposed to use encrypted email communications with patients (HIPAA law ) unless the patient opts out of the encryption. Fax is not considered by the law makers and IT consultants as electronic under this privacy legislation and so is not covered by these laws.

sbiddle

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#620533 6-May-2012 16:47

There should be no issues using this with VFX.

If you're trying to send via Asterisk you clearly need to understand how faxing works in Asterisk. If you simply registered as an extension and tried to send a T.38 fax then out of the box it will fail.

Zeon

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#620549 6-May-2012 16:58

Using fax2email from your service provider means you can ditch the analogue line. One of my customers gets thousands of faxes a day for $5.00 a month this way and it works PERFECTLY.

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gchiu

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#620582 6-May-2012 17:55

sbiddle: There should be no issues using this with VFX.

I tried registering with VFX but it wouldn't register, and that's why I next tried it with asterisk.
I used username = fromuser, password = secret, and authentication name = username

Maybe I should try a different combination.

sbiddle:
If you're trying to send via Asterisk you clearly need to understand how faxing works in Asterisk. If you simply registered as an extension and tried to send a T.38 fax then out of the box it will fail.

Yep, that's what I tried. I have T.38 passthrough, and extension set to detect fax to stop echo cancellation.

grant_k

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#620618 6-May-2012 18:48

Zeon: Using fax2email from your service provider means you can ditch the analogue line. One of my customers gets thousands of faxes a day for $5.00 a month this way and it works PERFECTLY.

I'm not saying that INCOMING faxes need an analogue line. I too have used Fax2email for years without any issues.

The problem arises with SENDING non-electronic (paper) documents. To do that simply, you need a standard fax machine, and they don't take kindly to working over VoIP connections, especially for international faxes. I spent hours trying to get it sorted, but in the end had to admit that a POTS line still has its uses sometimes!

grant_k

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#620619 6-May-2012 18:51

gchiu: Fax is not considered by the law makers and IT consultants as electronic under this privacy legislation and so is not covered by these laws.

Well that is truly bizarre! How do they think it works? By smoke signals?

gchiu

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#620623 6-May-2012 19:03

Dunno .. ask the IT consultants.

However, fax results in an imperfect copy whereas sending an email attachment results in a perfect copy. So, if your doctor faxes a prescription to your chemist, your chemist will demand the original otherwise the government will not reimburse them.

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