Creating a UNIX Fax Server

[Andrew Pollard]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me how I would create a Fax Server to run from UNIX. The system is a SuperDome and the OS is HPUX 11i.

Any information would be great.

Thanks
Andrew

[Peter Godron]

Andrew,
looking at prior threads:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=101784
Regards

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

My weapon of choice (and one I have used for many years) is a package called Vsi-Fax. Check www.esker.com

[Patrick Wallek]

I vote for VSIFax as well. We use it on several machines for faxing out. VSIFax also has the capability to send faxes via e-mail which is VERY nice.

[Steven E. Protter]

If for some reason I was silly enough to not listen to A. Clay, I'd look at the following open source alteratives:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=745031

Compiling these products on hpux is a non-trivial exercize.

SEP

[Andrew Pollard]

Hi,

These are great suggestions and VSIFax does look like the way to go. Unfortunatly some other senior admins here would rather not install such a product. Their question is:
"Can we not just set up the fax machine as a printer and feed it commands and options from the UNIX command line?"

Is this possible?
Thanks
Andrew

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Do you have a FAX machine that can accept the phone numbers via the serial port or network connection? It's certainly possible to modify the lp interface file to do almost anything but ultimately your fax machine has to understand the instructions. In contrast, Vsi-FAX also understands the concept of tags embedded in the input datastream. It can automatically extract the name, address, phone number, etc. directly from the data and take the appropriate action.