QUESTION Setting up remote access to AvantFax server in office?

[RoboLord]

Hey there, this is probably a pretty simple problem but I'm not an expert at networking. We are trying to replace an expensive eFax account with a self-hosted fax server. I've managed to install HylaFax/AvantFax with my Incredible PBX and it works perfectly for our needs in the office.

There's just one more hurdle: my business partner would like to be able to send faxes from her home office, or maybe even while on her laptop from elsewhere. I see two options, find a way to allow her access to the server that resides in the office, or install another fax server on a Raspberry Pi at her house.

I'd prefer the first option. What I have so far is a dynamic DNS (duck DNS) for the office IP address. What I don't have is a grasp on how to setup access to the Incredible PBX install on my Raspberry Pi 3. I assume I need to open up a port and white list the home office IP. Would I be able to get this to work if she were say at a coffee shop, and how?

My Unifi networking equipment has the option to setup a pretty straight forward Radius VPN server, and I've managed to route traffic through it, but I've never figured out how allow the remote client to interact with the office LAN clients. Something about routing rules but I am lost.

Any suggestions on how to go about this in the simplest way? Anything that requires a complex login routine from her laptop will be over her head.

Ideally, she would just direct her browser to https://officeserver.duckdns.org:9999 and have access to AvantFax front end. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[jerrm]

Best and most proper answer is get the VPN working. It's probably time well spent and opens up other possibilities down the road.

Email to fax may be the answer if she doesn't need all the Avantfax webinterface functions.

Simplest for web interface would be to allow the world access to the avantfax ip/port through the firewall and then use IPBX Travelin Man tools to whitelist her PC via a dyndns name. This assumes the IPBX firewall is properly secured to begin with.

You would have to load a dyndns client on her PC, and be aware of the effect NAT would have on the result - ie: everyone at the Starbucks she's working from would have access to anything not password protected. On a transient basis, this probably isn't as bad as it sounds, but it is a real issue.

 

[krzykat]

I'd focus on doing it via your VPN to the office and then do it as normal once on the LAN.

 

[atsak]

I always do point out here, self serving of course because I'm in the consult business, that you may find that the $200 you spend on getting a consultant to setup a proper VPN solution for you that's secure is probably worth the money rather than risking your network security by opening firewall holes if you don't quite understand what you're doing.

 

[dicko]

Over the years I have used hylafax significantly, there are several ways to send a fax from a remote location, to name a few:-

sendfax with -h (linux/ios/any thing but windo$e ;-) )
a socket connection over tcp 4559 (same as above)
a 'print driver' (windoze )
email (any device connected to the innertubes)
Avantfax

Each has its advantage, but anecdotally, if given a choice of all those, i can assure you that 99% of your users will end up using the email option if available.

As to security , you probably have that with email already as that was in fact the first protocol to be subject to penetration and thus protection of the first degree

 

[RoboLord]

Thanks for the tips to all. I spent the day trying to figure out what was wrong with the Unifi built in VPN. Turns out it wasn't working because I had the same 192.168.1.1 gateway on my home and work networks. I spent the afternoon migrating my work network to a different subnet and BINGO! I'm in business.

The reason I don't go for the email to fax option is because we need to have a detailed cover page for this industry. I haven't seen any way to do that with email to fax yet. If anyone has a suggestion on that front I'm all ears!

 

[dicko]

Eventually, any email2fax will likey call hylafax, you have any number of options to customize that coverpage, Avantfax has a recipe using html2ps but there are many other resources to do that with straight hylafax.

man sendfax

and look at all the "coverpage" options, if you need more static content , then you just put that in your template

 

[AndyInNYC]

I st up an email account on my domain called fax@ and stole some pop code to allow email to fax. It works as a cron job to check for new email and then parse and fax it. I specifically set it to accept PDF files only since that is all I fax.

Check in the pbx v 3 help forum for the thread.

I put the two files in root and created a sub directory named imap-dump under root.

You will need to make the php files executable.

I can walk you through installation if you need.

Andrew

 

[dicko]

@AndInNYC,

Will your code generate the Custom cover page needed by @RoboLord ? (can it in fact even generate a cover page? ;-) )

 

[AndyInNYC]

dicko, it certainly will.

the -C parameter controls which cover page to use. If you have one/multiple, you just reference it like:
#!#-C /var/www/html/avantfax/images/MyCustomCover.ps (or whatever it is called) within the email body.

All of the other parameters you use fill in the details on the page.
I have the routine ONLY sending pdf files (all I use) which saves me from exploding the file name to get the correct extension; this wouid be a trivial change, however.

Now, if only I could get a 'fancy' .html coverpage to send correctly <sad face>.


Andrew