IP FAX's

Has any one done this?

we have a need to FAX from a building that has no analog lines, we do run VoIP and from what I read there is the T38 protocol for FoIP.

however I can't see clearly how this works? are there any true IP fax machines around that can talk to the VoIP switch via T38 where it provided a gateway to the analog world.

Or are there other better ways to do this. we really need a fax machine and not software fax on a users PC.

Oh our VoIP switch is Mitel.

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Comments

it_consultant

You will still need a fax gateway to convert the fax from the PSTN network to your VOIP network - i.e. you still need either a full or half T1 and either an ad-tran or a PRI capable fax card or you need analog lines. The other end you have to worry about is the fax machine, which I can promise is expecting an analog signal.

I don't know the specifics of your phone switch but in my clients who are medical offices I often have a full or half PRI pulled in to the closet with an ad tran converting the signal to analog and then passed along directly into the phone switch, usually an Avaya. The Avaya then does a 4 digit analog dial to an internal fax machine. Fortunately you can send the fax over standard ethernet cabling with either a RJ11 or RJ45 connector. If your phone system does not support this, many fax cards can but you are severely limited on ports.

Trifidw

There's a few options out there. Something like a Cisco ATA that you can hook up to a normal fax machine. Rightfax has a MFP module that allows the printer to fax directly to the rightfax server. You may find your VoIP PSTN provider may also support fax rate detect to allow you to even send faxes out of your network over IP.

the_Grinch

Efaxcorporate.com

We use it hear and it is pretty good.

it_consultant

They need to be able to use fax machines; which means at some point you need to convert to analog. Originally I was going to say efax but Devil specifically mentioned the use of fax machines as opposed to email or a PC application.

DevilWAH

Trifidw wrote: »

There's a few options out there. Something like a Cisco ATA that you can hook up to a normal fax machine. Rightfax has a MFP module that allows the printer to fax directly to the rightfax server. You may find your VoIP PSTN provider may also support fax rate detect to allow you to even send faxes out of your network over IP.

Do you have any experience with the ATA ( was looking at the 187). From what I can see this might be the answer, at £120 its not going to break the bank to try it.

Trifidw

DevilWAH wrote: »

Do you have any experience with the ATA ( was looking at the 187). From what I can see this might be the answer, at £120 its not going to break the bank to try it.

Unfortunately we have quite a few fax machines connected either through a VG224/VG248 or ATA 186/187. The ATA187 only supports sip signalling which would be beneficial for you. It's been a while since I've configured one but I seem to recall needing to change the impedance to 600 ohm non complex otherwise there is a fair amount of noise on the line.

it_consultant

Not specific to the ATA187, I have run fax lines over a SIP trunk provided by the ISP and it worked quite badly. Faxes over 3 pages long religiously failed. If you rely heavily on faxes I would recommend going old school.

RouteMyPacket

Noooooooooooooo! Stay away

All week I have been doing Voice stuff and low and behold they are implementing a new RightFax FoIP solution so I have made some config changes to one of my VG's and CUCM to allow RightFax to comm with CUCM (SIP)

I agree that using some ATA's could be a viable option for you. I have around 50 ATA's deployed for faxing to printers and a few for some analog phones (don't ask). See my "I hate voice" for my opinion of it all. lulz

it_consultant

I should specify that my problem with the faxes had nothing to do with the handoff to the device itself, the problem was the fax conversion to the PSTN network (we got a SIP trunk) which is/was controlled by the provider. Every time this has worked properly well it was either a POTS line pulled to the suite or a PRI pulled to the suite. It sucks to have to pay for a T to dedicate to faxes, but if they are a main communication method (like sending scripts to pharmacies) then it is not something you want to mess around with.

DevilWAH

I suppose I should take a look at the sites PBX, never really had cause to look until now

, and as you can guess I am not a Voice engineer

Does any one have experience in the T38 protocol and does it really offer any improvments?