Re: [hylafax-users] Iternet-Fax WG Anyone?

[Lee Howard <faxguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2004.08.03 21:01 Bill Binko wrote:

> The standard that the copier we're using employs to send "internet
> faxes"
> is officially ITU-T T.37.  T.37 is a "store-and-forward" form of
> internet
> faxing: basically, it routes fax images over SMTP.
>
> The T.37 is based on the "Internet Fax" or "IFax" standard defined by
> the
> ietf as RFCs 2301-2305 (with updated RFCs available at
> http://www.imc.org/ietf-fax).

Just so that everyone is clear on this, there is also another "internet 
fax" standard defined by T.38 which is not a "store-and-forward" form.  
T.37 and T.38 are quite different.

> I looked through the archives and found little to go on, except for a
> brief thread in May 2001 where Lee concluded that Hylafax's faxmail
> and
> T.37 were: "Not close at all.  Feel like coding it?"

I don't recall ever studying T.37.  I have studied T.38, and I suspect 
that my comments were related to T.38 vs. faxmail.

> One of the biggest problems we see on this board is how to get paper
> documents through the server.  People still need to sign things: it's
> at
> least one thing that people still use paper faxes for.  At my client,
> we're trying desparately to get people to give up the fax machines on
> their desks: they're expensive to operate, we have no record of the
> sent
> and recieved faxes, they use dedicated phone lines, and we pay long
> distance -- all-in-all: they stink!

Have you considered my recently posted ideas about using fax machines 
as networked HylaFAX client devices (in part by using PBX software such 
as Asterisk)?  You'd get all of the benefits of HylaFAX with all of the 
ease-of-use of the fax machine.

> I wanted to get the same benefits for their outbound paper faxes, so I
> planned on writing another script that let him "scan to email to fax"
> using faxmail.  Then I noticed the T.37 feature on the machine and
> realized that this was worth looking into.

It is worth looking into.

> Many of the devices we looked at included T.37 support: Ricoh,
> Panasonic,

I have read through a couple of Panasonic Panafax manuals that had 
fax-to-email capabilities, and I don't remember any comments about T.37.

> Brother, Gestetner, Sharp, Xerox, Mita, Oki, and many other
> manufacturers
> make them (froogle is your friend).  Most of them are not, but if
> you're
> leasing a copier anyway, adding T.37 support is usually included in
> the
> "Scanning Option".

> The problem is there's no open-source T.37 gateway that I could find!

Yes there is: procmail (or even shell, for that matter).

> Personally, I think it would be fairly simple to modify faxmail to
> accept T.37 addresses.  They are basically of the form
> "FAX=+12223334444@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx".

Extending faxmail wouldn't be difficult, but you would have to get it 
to handle TIFF attachments or whatever attachment type T.37 uses.  By 
the same token, it probably would take far less time in developing a 
procmail solution.  I must have written a dozen different faxmail 
replacements using procmail and/or shell, and I suspect that I've spent 
less time in total than it would have taken me to enhance faxmail to my 
liking.

> If there's interest in the community, please let me know

There's interest, don't worry.  Once you let people know on-list of 
this "neat, newfangled way" of getting the routine stuff done in a 
better fashion, then people will perk up.  Sometimes you have to show 
people how good it can be before they realize that they're missing 
something.

Lee.

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