Re: [hylafax-users] modem selection

["Bruce Whittaker" <bwhittak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK.... my 2 cents worth (... a tuppenny for the English )

To start with - Hylafax is wonderful and Lee impresses the pants off me. He knows his stuff and is (nearly) always so polite with some of our moronic questions.
Now on to Class 2 and why some people still use it. This was the default when I inherited this system so I was not going to mess with things that aren't broken. 
Now that I know a little more (and I'm getting over the fear of the unknown), I am planning to go to class 1 but I really dont like the fact that it will put more load on the CPU - admittedly it will only be a light load but my concern is that should the CPU come under pressure from other apps on our production box - the faxing will suffer and possibly start generating errors.
That's it - I think some people do have reasons for using Class 2 (especially those of us on older machines - or machines under load) but I'm extremely unimpressed with the lack of consistency between manufacturers implementations of Class2. It gives me more work.

Cheers,

Bruce Whittaker,
CASS Support,
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An Intrepid HylaFax User <hylafax@xxxxxxxxx> Sent by: hylafax-users-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxx 17/03/2004 06:54

To:        hylafax-users@xxxxxxxxxxx         cc:                 Subject:        Re: [hylafax-users] modem selection

> Why is everyone so adamant about class 2?

I have no idea, but maybe I can offer a little insight via my own evolution
of using hylafax.

When I first started with this faxmodem/server thing years ago in Australia,
I tried to use Class 2/2.0 figuring "more/higher-level support" by the modem
manufacturers and perhaps the software developers of the fax products.

Well, a couple of months after that, and tons of odd "can't get this page
from X, Y, or Z brands of fax machines"... and looking at the actual code, I
realised Class 1, while more "primitive" at the modem-level, actually offers
alot more control in the software end [which is patchable/updatable on a
regular basis, unlike most modem firmware].

I've been a solid Class 1 users on my home network fax server ever since
[99.9% receive mode operation].  For what its worth, I've run hylafax in
Class 1 mode on 32MB P-166 file/print/web/ftp servers with never an issue of
"lost data" or bad connections due to timing issues (assuming the log
entries state something like this as a failure code).

> Considering (as far as I know)
> most fax modems don't implement class 2 very well, I have never used
> anything other than class 1 with great results.

Likewise, though I'm using Class 2.1 with my Multitech ZBA [heads up folks:
firmware updated to 1.28D] on my primarily-outgoing faxserver. Using Class 1
didn't seem to significantly affect my call-completion rates, and I lost
some functionality in the process.

> As far as the $50 fax machine argument.  Lets compare apples and apples.

Well, at the end of the day the process involves the conveyance of a scanned
page from one end to another.  Let's not get confused here.  Whether or not
you're sending one page from a standalone device or using some funky 50,000
robo-fax module to do it for you, the ultimate purpose is to convey a
facsimile image of a document through a POTS line.

=R=

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