Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 15:30:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Rob Newberry <rob@eats.com>
Subject: the truth about egetty/vgetty
Here is the "truth" about vgetty/egetty.
HylaFAX calls the program which is configured as "vgetty"
when it has been configured to use distinctive ring and
it has detected that a voice call has just been answered.
In order to use it, you must have HylaFAX working with
distinctive ring support on your modem, and distinctive
ring support from your phone company. What then happens
is that you normally get FAX/data calls to your modem, and
the modem says "RING1" (or something) and HylaFAX says
"Hey, it's a FAX or data call", answers the phone and hands
it off to getty (for data calls) or handles it iself.
For voice calls, the modem says "RING2" and HylaFAX answers
the phone (but doesn't make any noise on the line) and
hands the call off to the configured "vgetty" program, along
with any configured arguments.
The vgetty that comes with "mgetty+sendfax" is NOT this kind
of program. To the best of my knowledge, it will NOT work
in this way. That vgetty works much like HylaFAX itself
works --it handles answering the phone and everything. It
doesn't support invoking it with the TTY line already open.
At least, that's the way it used to be.
On the other hand, I have written a VERY basic "vgetty"
program that works with Rockwell modems. I had shared it
with another member on this list who was adding more sophisticated
voice mail features to it, but we've both been sidetracked.
I would probably be willing to release the code, but cannot
support it in any form. But I can't do even that very quickly.
"egetty" is, to the best of my knowlege, a similar program.
I do not know its author, but I know that he or she and I both
had email conversations with Sam about getting HylaFAX to better
support voice calls, and our solution was to provide the hooks
that now exist in HylaFAX (actually, this was mostly Sam's
own solution, just slightly made easier to use by us).
I hope this makes things a little clearer. I'm sorry that
it's taken me so long to speak up, but I thought I would
get around to finishing up the project, but the Mac client*
has consumed all of my spare time.
Rob
Rob Newberry
rob@eats.com
* see http://www.eats.com/MacFlex/ for more info; a new version
is coming SOON
FAQ Index
Q361: Anyone done a faxback system?