how can I send a print job as a fax from hpux 11.0

[Dave Chamberlin]

We need to be able to send some print jobs as faxes from our N4000 Server running HPUX 11.0. Under SAM, I find no references to anything like a FAX. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

[Steven E. Protter]

What faxes actually are is .tiff files. Depending on the application, can you save the "print" job in tiff format, transfer it to another machine with a fax modem and have that machine send the fax?

Alternative: Windows 2003 Server and third party products have printers that can be shared that are actually fax queues. You may be able to submit output via CIFS/9000 client.

Alternative: Hang a supported, external fax modem off the N4000 box(prob. not a good idea).

SEP

[A. Clay Stephenson]

My weapon of choice for this (and one I hav e used for many years) is Vsi-Fax from http://www.esker.com. You send it a plain text file, a PCL file, or a postscript file and it handles the faxing including optional cover sheets. It's very easy to integrate into the lp spooler subsystem and if your application can embed "tags" in the source files, it can automatically grab the name, the number, the adddress, etc. directly from the input file(s). The fax server can be your UNIX box or it can relay the requests to another host which might be a PC.

[Rick Garland]

As mentioned, there is VSI-FAX.
You can also hang a fax board off a WIN system and then set up a remote printer to the WIN system with the specs being the FAX/printer.

Either way what you actually see as an end user is a queue that looks like and acts like a print queue.

[Bill Hassell]

There is no software native to HP-UX that will send or receive a fax. While there are some freeware products that can be compiled, they can be quite involved to put together and make work (libraries, plug-ins, etc). HP-UX has no native image support either (ie, .pdf, .tif .jpg and so on) so there will be problems trying to send anything except plain ASCII files.

As mentioned, the VSI-Fax product is the best (I've used it extensively) although it is not free. It can handle a variety of images and features such as cover pages. Check the Esker website.