Re: flexfax: replacing an exchange fax server

[Matthew Kirkwood <weejock@ferret.lmh.ox.ac.uk>]

On Mon, 16 Nov 1998, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:

> > I'm helping someone to replace an NT box with
> > a RedHat system, and we're satisfied that we can
> > get Linux to do everything that his current dying
> > Small Business Server can, with the exception of
> > fax services.
>
> I've set this up on a consulting basis for several sites. Let me know
> if you need help.

Thanks,

> > His users work almost entirely from Outlook 98,
> > and send faxes by mailing word documents as
> > attachments to email addresses which look like
> > '[fax:NUMBER]'
>
> So far, so good.

Apart from the Outlook bit :)

> > It seems that Outlook then sends the document
> > through to Exchange which hands it to the fax service
> > for rendering and faxing.
> 
> ***GACK***. Exchange is one of the most unreliable products
> known to modern computing, beaten for poor service only by
> its predecessor MSMail and a misbegotten product called
> "First Class" written for the Macintosh.

And one of the reasons that the bloke wants a Linux server :)

> > I was wondering if anyone had done something like
> > this before; I suspect that it could be done quite
> > simply with some VBA at the client side, but he
> > doesn't want to have to alter the clients and
> > especially his users way of working.
>
> It can be done with built-in tools for HylaFAX and
> a modern Linux system. Incoming mail goes to "fax@linux-server",
> and includes an extra header for "Fax Recipient:"

Yep, that's what I suggested.

> > Ideally, there would be a Linux word->tiff renderer
> > available, but I suspect that to be a pipe-dream.
>
> Definitely. There are some tools for Word document translation, but
> what you really want to work with is Postscript output.  Instead of
> sending the documents as Word documents, the easiest solution is to
> print them to the Fax server. The Star Office suite
> (www.stardivision.com) may be able to translate Word documents
> directly to Postscript: you might write to them and ask.

That's a good idea - thanks.

> The same functionality may be available via "WHFC", which uses
> *printing* to send a job to the fax server instead of email. This
> raises security issues of protecting your fax server, but no greater
> than those of letting email be sent through your fax server.

I've been trying to convince him that this is the answer, but he's
(unreasonably, IMHO) convinced that this will require significant
changes in his Outlook/Access application.  (In a past life, I did
a disturbing amount of VB/VBA, and I'm not convinced of the truth of
this one.)

Thanks - I can now safely claim that the hf experts say I'm right
and that he should let me to a half-hour client hack instead of a
six-month-plus Word document renderer... :)

Matthew.