TIPS Finding received faxes (avantfax on incredible)

MacNix

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We're working with a client who's had issues FOREVER with faxing.
yes, everybody hates faxing. but just like bad politicians and hemorrhoids, it seems to be here for a while...

so we need to:
1. receive faxes in the Piaf box
2. NOT email them. (for legal reasons they can't leave the facility after conversion to digital format)
3. Print them.

System version below.

Here's my current situation:
a. I can receive the faxes and Piaf will email them to me.
I'm receiving the faxes to the system but I can't find the file!
- (am getting verification from fax sending system)
- if i have it set to email the faxes, piaf sends me the email with the fax attachment.
b. i can send faxes just fine from Avantfax.
/var/www/html/avantfax/faxes/sent shows folders with recently sent faxes...

BUT /var/www/html/avantfax/faxes/recvd is always empty...


So.

I *THINK* I should be able to find the faxes in /var/www/html/avantfax/faxes/recvd/

My hope is that **IF** i can find the folder/location for these received faxes, I can then use another system chron'd to rsync that folder to another real OS where I can then manage/print/handle those .pdfs.

I was also looking under /var/spool/hylafax/
(i think /var/spool/hylafax/recvq/ )
but the faxes aren't showing up there either..

Am I barking up the wrong tree? I'm thinking I should be able to find a folder somewhere with some .PDF files..

I've got the inbound route set to "detect" -> yes, then send to an extension...
what do i change??



│ Asterisk = ONLINE | Dahdi = ONLINE | MySQL = ONLINE │
│ SSH = ONLINE | Apache = ONLINE | Iptables = ONLINE │
│ Fail2ban = ONLINE | Internet = ONLINE | Ip6Tables = ONLINE │
│ Disk Free = ADEQUATE| Mem Free = ADEQUATE| NTPD = ONLINE │
│ SendMail = ONLINE | Samba = OFFLINE | Webmin = ONLINE │
│ Ethernet0 = ONLINE | Ethernet1 = N/A | Wlan0 = N/A │
│ │
│ PIAF Installed Version = 3.0.6.5 under *HARDWARE* │
│ FreePBX Version = 2.11.0.38 │
│ Running Asterisk Version = 11.12.0 │
│ Asterisk Source Version = 11.12.0 │
│ Dahdi Source Version = 2.10.0 │
│ Libpri Source Version = 1.4.15 │
│ IP Address = 10.x.x.x on eth0 │
│ Operating System = CentOS release 6.5 (Final) >< │
│ Kernel Version = 2.6.32-431.29.2.el6.i686 - 32 Bit │
│ Incredible Version = 11.10 │
 
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MacNix

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Well...

Since nobody else came along with this, I thought I'd put the answer in, so the next person doesn't spend hours on end making it work.

1. Avant/Hylafax stores received faxes in /var/spool/asterisk/fax/
2. Faxes are received (temporarily) as .tif files, then when they are completed, the final file is converted to a .PDF, and saved in the same folder.
3. To force the system to **NOT** email the fax, simply use a non-valid email address..
4. For 'HIPAA' or other secure facilities, this (non-faxing) operation can allow you to NOT email faxes, but spool them directly to a print
You can then have a launchd to monitor this folder for new .pdf files, then either print them ("for i"....."lpr", etc), or move them to another location.
You can also rsync this folder elsewhere for similar actions.


As I'm not fond of 'playing under the hood' of Piaf if possible, I elected to run launchd's off another box on the LAN, handed it an authorization (.ssh/authorized key) so it can login for an rsync, and it handles checking/copying/printing of any received faxes.
This has been **MOSTLY** reliable.

The only complication I'm experiencing is that a few faxes are dying under error (sender has called saying fax failed after xx attempts, etc), and nobody knows why. [frankly, none of the services I work with (iFax, eFax, Vitelity, etc) want anything to do with Piaf when it comes to faxing.]

I also realized (today) that I didn't have t.38 enabled on my Vitelity trunks.. Just did that - it might be working now - will have to see if that fixes the groups that were failing...
 
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MacNix

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as an addendum to this, I've gained a good bit of knowledge regarding the whole fax process in this time. Dunno that I wanted to get an undergraduate in a century-old technology, but we can't have it all....

The whole idea of faxing is still a debacle, 150 years after it was invented. Too many protocols, and (sadly) too many companies unwilling to leave buggywhips out of their sportscars... 6 prototols just in the past 25yrs, and it seems none of them have ever really worked well.

The only folks who seem to **REALLY** understand t38 are the t38fax.com folks, and they offer a t38 compliant box. incidentally they are sister companies to ifax.com (who IS Hylafax)... That's where Hylafax comes from. They really understand it, although they also tend to be rather proud of their baby ($15k for a hardware capable PCIe card!?), AND they won't "play with others' hardware".. actually, the comments made about working with Hylafax/Piaf were......not flattering. But, I gotta hand it to them - they've produced a much more reliable platform, and it's well supported.

Vitelity has a nice thing going with their flavor of VFax, although they had a few really terrible issues this summer/fall, and for fax-dependent businesses, that's a deal-killer.. THey might've gotten them all fixed-but I can't really afford to risk it yet. VFax is basically a T38-based process, running on AudioCodes hardware; you buy their box ($110 for the box), buy a line, and pay a few bucks extra for the dedicated process to your box. I'm not 100% certain, but apparently it runs the sip to the Audiocodes box (which is pretty good but is unsupported by anybody other than a vendor)...
 

islandtech

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FaxSipit.com is a provider that I use. One of my six customers has used this service since 2013. Between them they average around 650 faxes a month with no issues
 

MacNix

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thx for the note on FaxSipit.com..

I've contacted them, and they're coming out with ANOTHER option which (IMO) is a great one....
for folks who need secure fax reception, they're going to have a Hylafax system that can be done as an add-on to your asterisk box, which basically allows your hylafax reception to receive secure, OR they receive secure, andd your asterisk box can sftp the files down (for local printing, etc)...

It's not public yet, but they're running beta on it now and will release in january supposedly. this seems to be a great option for legal/medical/educational faxing where "HIPAA-compliant" options are a must... Supposedly it's going to be competitive to VFax (Vitelity), but eliminates the necessity of having another needless hardware device (audiocodes ata box, etc)..

more to come soon..
 

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