Re: [hylafax-users] Routing faxes to other fax servers based on phone number

[Joe Phillips <jaiger@acm.org>]

On Fri, Mar 22, 2002 at 07:01:56AM -0500, Yan Seiner wrote:
> Lee Howard wrote:
> > > In a closed, single admin group it could work.  Otherwise you're trusting
> > > the admin of the forwarding server to have properly configured (secured)
> > > his machine or the whole network suffers.
> > 
> > Indeed.  The whole function works better, IMHO, if the client, rather than
> > the server, is configured to direct jobs to multiple servers based on
> > destination number.
> 
> Let me chime in here.  I think a client based setup would be a nightmare
> from an admin standpoint.  Really, we should be thinking of a hylafax
> proxy that would sit between the server(s) and the client, and decide
> which server to route the fax to.  This would allow you to use the
> existing clients, and code a competely separate app to handle security
> and WAF <- New term I just made up - wide area faxing. :-)

IMO, both configs (server vs client controlled) are admin nightmares due 
to the security issues.  That said, I do think the proxy is a better 
'solution.'  If nothing else, it would be an optional, discrete module.

As said before, this module would emulate a server *and* client in one
piece.  I guess that's what we mean by 'proxy' 8).

> A proxy could be (and should be) a completely separate software
> package.  The security layer should be handled by the proxy as well -
> possibly running a lightweight VPN (like vtun) between servers.  The
> proxy would handle user requests as well, like deleting faxes.  From the
> user's standpoint, the fax is local; the proxy figures out where it sent
> that fax and tells that server to delete it.

This isn't much different conceptually from web load balancers and proxies.

It's still similar to the email model.  It makes me nervous.

As for VPN/vtun, why not SSL?

-joe
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