SUMMARY: Integrating E-mail and FAX
Stefan Mochnacki
stefan at centaur.astro.utoronto.ca
Sun Dec 30 12:04:00 AEST 1990
A few weeks ago, in v9n375, I asked about integrating FAX and e-mail on a
network. I received MANY useful replies, and I particularly thank:
chucks at sne42n.orl.mmc.com
John Hasley<hasley at andy.bgsu.edu>
Fuat C. Baran <fuat at cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
"C.R. Ritson" <C.R.Ritson at newcastle.ac.uk>
Phillip.Everson at UK.Sun.COM (Phillip Everson)
Nicolas Chrissakis <nicolas at csi.forth.gr>
jec at inf.rl.ac.uk (John E Chandler)
srm at unify.com (Steve Maraglia)
John E.Phillips <uunet!pcgbase!jep>
Les.Zsampar at Canada.Sun.COM (Les Zsampar)
Marek.Krawus at cc.uq.oz.au
gmd at uunet.UU.NET (George MacDonald)
paul at moore.com (Paul Maclauchlan)
hqm at ai.mit.edu (Henry Minsky)
allen at QAL.Berkeley.Edu
oattes at madhaus.utcs.utoronto.ca
"Amir J. Katz (Xpert" <sn4idc8!amirk at uunet.uu.net>
rafael@@decwrl.dec.com (Le Jazz)
Brian Beattie - Dunlap Observatory <beattie>
sn4idc8!amirk at uunet.UU.NET (Amir J. Katz (Xpert))
whitney!siddiqi at sunkist.West.Sun.COM (Arshad M Siddiqi)
aut!sbader at hasler.ascom.ch
Robert J. Moorhead <rjm at Zeus.ERC.MsState.Edu>
I considered only packages which do BOTH outgoing and incoming FAXes;
there are other packages which do only outgoing FAXes. I have received
literature from several vendors, and I have corresponded with the author
of a free package. A highly edited summary follows. The packages are, in
very roughly descending order of cost:
1. Qfax (Choreo Systems)
2. IsoFax (Bristol Group)
3. FAXModem 9600 (Perfect Byte)
4. Unifax (Faxxis International)
5. FAXView (Sun)
6. VSI*FAX (V-Systems)
7. Trufax (COS Inc.)
8. netfax (Henry Minsky, MIT Media Lab)
Additional info:
9. S-Bus based products.
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1. Qfax
Vendor: Choreo Systems Inc.
47 Colbourne Street, Suite 300,
Toronto, Ontario M5E 1P8, CANADA
Tel: (416)-360-0516 FAX: (416)-359-1172
Attn: Chris Strybos
[ Received literature and FAXes - SWM ]
This system uses a dedicated 286 or 386 PC server, containing one or more
FAX cards, connected by RS232 to a UNIX or VMS host, directly or via a
terminal server. Handles ASCII, Postscript, TIFF, HPGL and IMG files in
and out. Does multiple destinations, full security and accounting, has
Wordperfect interface. Very complete product.
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2. IsoFax (From: jec at inf.rl.ac.uk (John E Chandler) )
The Bristol Group Ltd, The Bristol Group Deutschland GmbH,
P.O. Box 910, Dreieichstrabe 10,
Londonderry, D6082 Morfelden-Walldorf,
New Hampshire 03053. Germany.
Phone : 603 437-3700 Phone : 0 6105 2945
Fax : 603 437-3220 Fax : 0 6105 25395
[ Received literature and FAXes - SWM ]
Overview
Isofax is a modular software package, based on five key modules. The
package uses an Everex/Abaton faxmodem (which is currently not British
Telecom approved) but BG claim that a version of the package working with
a BT approved modem will be available at some time in the near future.
Hardware supported by the package includes Sun3, and Sun4 (SPARC) machines.
Key Features
o Incoming and outgoing faxes
o Graphical (SunWindows) and command line interface's
o Input files accepted - ASCII, raster and postscript
o Floating network license
o On screen viewing of faxes
o Delayed/off hours transmission of faxes
o Multiple destinations
o Incoming and Outgoing activity logs
o Fax Phone directory
[ I had several happy users mail me comments ]
################################################################
3. Faxmodem 9600 [ From: jec at inf.rl.ac.uk (John E Chandler) ]
Perfect Byte Inc.
7121 Cass Street,
Omaha,
Nebraska 68132 Phone : 402 554-1122
United States Fax : 402 554-1938
[ Received literatire and FAXes - SWM ]
Overview
The Faxmodem 9600 is a complete package comprising a fax modem and
driver/application software. The modem is currently not BT approved,
though PB say they have applied for approval and expect their modem to be
approved within the next 12 weeks. Faxmodem 9600 is an external device
which plugs into a dedicated asynch serial port on the host workstation.
The package requires a diskful Sun-4 workstation with a minimum of 10MB of
free space.
Key Features
o Incoming and outgoing faxes
o Graphical (SunView and OpenWindows) and command line interface's
o Input files accepted - ASCII, raster and postscript
o E-mail notification of receipt of fax and other fax activity
o Onscreen viewing of faxes
o Floating network license
o Delayed/off hours transmission of faxes
o Multiple destinations
o Incoming and Outgoing activity logs
o Fax Phone directory
[ I had several happy users mail me comments ]
################################################################
4. Unifax [From: jec at inf.rl.ac.uk (John E Chandler) ]
Faxxis International Inc.,
13355 Noel Road,
Suite 500,
Dallas, Phone : 214 702-7999
Texas 75240. Fax : 214 702-7992
Overview
Unifax is mainly intended for use on PC's running Xenix, (the graphical
front end and fax previewer being meant for use with EGA/VGA screens).
Faxxis did however claim to be completing support for SunOS and to be
providing X-windows support on 88000 architectures, when I contacted them
back in August
Unifax may be used in conjunction with a number of different fax modems,
including the Everex/Abaton and JT Fax 9600 modems.
Key Features
o Incoming and outgoing faxes
o Graphical (EGA/VGA, X-Windows due Sep/Oct 90) and command line interface's
o Input files accepted - ASCII and TIFF/F (postscript due Sept 90)
o E-mail notification of receipt of fax and other fax activity
o Onscreen viewing of faxes
o Delayed/off hours transmission of faxes
o Multiple destinations
o Incoming andOutgoing activity logs
################################################################
5. FAXView [ From: Les.Zsampar at Canada.Sun.COM (Les Zsampar) ]
This is a Sun Sonsulting special. Contact your local Sun sales office.
Some excerpts from Sun's info:
Faxview User's Guide
Description:
Faxview is a SunView based application to send, receive, display and print
facsimiles. Sending and receiving of faxes is accomplished via email from
a "fax server" workstation. Faxview can either be run as a window-based
program on your Sun framebuffer to display an image of a fax or it can be
run from any terminal to print a fax.
The window-based portion of faxview consists mainly of 3 SunView frames.
The first frame contains 3 windows, the Control panel where the user
chooses how to display the fax, the scrollable Error window where error
messages are displayed, and the Display canvas where the facsimile image
can be viewed.
Installation STEP 1.
The following files should be included with the faxview software
distribution:
faxview ** Tool to view & print FAX document
faxview.doc ** Documentation for faxview
im_scale ** Scaling filter for Imagen printer
rasterfile_to_impress ** Print filter for Imagen
printer
and the following files are needed and can be found in either the Sun
standard OS release or printer software releases.
pssun ** Print filter for Sun Laserwriter
** (supplied with Transcript software)
uuencode ** Encodes files for email transmission
uudecode ** Decodes uuencoded files
Contact your system administrator or the Sun Corporate FAX room if you
need a copy of the listed files.
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6. VSI*Fax [ From: whitney!siddiqi at sunkist.West.Sun.COM (Arshad M Siddiqi)]
VSI*FAX from V-Systems can make your Sun a fax machine. There number is
(714) 545-6442.
[ From: srm at unify.com (Steve Maraglia) ]
I've just purchased a product from a company called V-Systems
(714-545-6442), that includes a fax modem and software that enables you to
send, receive and print (on a HP Laser jet) faxes. This product is still
in its infancy but shows a lot of promise. I'm running it on a Sequent, I
don't know if the have ported it to Sun yet but it is ported to 386
running Sys V.3. Give them a call!
################################################################
7. Trufax [From: jec at inf.rl.ac.uk (John E Chandler) ]
COS Inc.,
9 Huron Way,
Lawrencville, Phone : 609 771-6705
NJ 08648 Fax : 609 530-0898
[ Received literature and FAXes - SWM ]
Overview
Trufax is another fax product which is mainly intended for use with 386
based PC's running either Unix or Xenix. When I contacted COS Inc.
however, I was informed that a Sun-4 version was being beta tested and
that it was due for release towards the end of October.
Trufax supports only external fax modems and their literature makes
specific reference to the Everex Everfax modem.
Trufax is designed as a set of tools, which can be used from the command
line.
Key Features
o Incoming and outgoing faxes
o Command line interface
o Input files accepted - ASCII, and TIFF/F
o E-mail notification of receipt of fax
o Onscreen viewing of faxes
o Automatic retries
[ I received the info from these people: They now support: 386/486 UNIX,
XENIX, PS/2 AIX, Sun SPARCStation, AT&T 3B2, RS6000 Their prices are
extremely competitive. Talk to Bill Michaelson. Chinon DS-3000 scanner
supported; HP Laserjet II. - SWM. ]
################################################################
8. netfax
This is the only extensive freely-available package I located. Here are
excerpts of what I have received (I have also downloaded the latest
version) :
[ Exchanged e-mail with Henry Minsky. Thank you Phillip Everson]
Original-posting-by: hqm at media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Henry Minsky)
Original-subject: UNIX network fax transmission software
Archive-site: alpha-bits.ai.mit.edu [128.52.32.5]
Archive-directory: /pub/netfax
We have written a fax spooler to run on our lab unix network. It takes
documents in ASCII, postscript, or DVI form and transmits them using an
Abaton Interfax 24/96 faxmodem. We use ghostscript, the publicly licensed
postscript interpreter, and the Portable Bitmap Toolkit to generate the
bitmap data and encode it for the fax modem.
It is easy to have the mailer invoke the fax sending program in order to
make an email/fax gateway.
We are using a beta release of the faxmodem software from Everex, which
supports the new class 2 faxmodem protocol. It should be available
commercially very soon.
The compressed tar file of sources are available by anonymous ftp from
alpha-bits.ai.mit.edu in the /pub/netfax directory as netfax.tar.
[Excerpts from email]
The class 2 spec is based on the ongoing work in EIA technical committee
TR-29.2, Facsimile Digital Interfaces. Project PN-2388, Aschnchronous
Facsimile DCE Control Standard, is the base specification.
Service Class 2 will be published and sold by EIA as EIA-592 after the
ballot-edit-ballot process converges. Ballot copies of SP-2388 can be
obtained by sending a check (pay to "Electronics Industry Association ")
for $28.00 to "Susan Shaw, EIA , 2001 Pennsylvania NW, Washington DC
20006"
I believe that there are NO commercially avaliable modems today which
conform to the Class 2 Standard. We are using a BETA TEST version of the
Abaton Interfax modem, with new ROMs from the developer. They tell me that
they will be announcing a commercially available Class 2 Modem product
very soon (within a few months for sure). For more info, contact John
Dyer-Bennet at Cygnet ( a subdsidiary of Everex) at Voice: 415-486-2620 ,
Fax: 415-845-5441
I keep meaning to scan in the TR-29.2 document, and put it online, but I
don't have enough time.
***
|In looking over the netfax package I downloaded from alpha-bits yesterday,
|we have noticed "faxreceive". It is not mentioned anywhere else in the
|package as far as I can see. I presume some sort of daemon would have to
|invoke it when it detects that the phone is ringing. Is "faxreceive" a
|working piece of software (minus daemon ?) ?
|Would "netfax" work under SunOS 3.5 on a Sun 3?
The faxreceive stuff is indeed a fax receive routine I started working on.
I haven't had time to finish it, but the idea is to move the tty control
to a separate module, and to make the faxspooler monitor the tty line when
it is idle. If it sees a RING signal, it should call the faxreceive stuff,
and dump the incoming files to a spool directory.
I really need to remodularize the low level control stuff. I plan to
isolate out the fax class 2 protocol stuff into a separate file. This
should make it easier for people to write their own applications, and
provide some level of documentation if you don't have the Class 2
document.
I will probably finish the stuff over January, when we have a winter
break.
I assume the code is fairly portable. We don't use any fancy OS features.
***
I've added fax receive capability to the netfax stuff. It now watches for
ring signals from the modem, and dumps the incoming faxes into a
directory.
The bits are in
alpha-bits.ai.mit.edu: ftp/pub/systems/netfax/netfax.tar.Z
(thats internet address 128.52.37.5)
Still no word on when the Class 2 modems are being announced as products,
but I've heard that it should be soon.
#################################################################
9. S-Bus FAX products: (info from Sun; "CATALYST" cat'lg.)
[[Ed's Note: Published in Sunspots v9n400 - see that issue for full
information - I cut these short to save a few bytes. -bdg]]
Vendor Name Product Description Price/Availability
----------- ------------------ ------------------
Antares Microsystems Fax Modem Contact vendor
Helios Systems X-tend Netmodem/Fax board November 90
JTS Computer Systems Data Compression/Decompression August 90
Joe Strul using CCITT group 3 & Group 4
Xecom NewPort SB Fax/Data (9.6 Kbaud August 90
408-945-6640 Fax, 2.4 Kbaud data modem) Contact vendor
Allen Gregory NewPort SB 2400MNP5 2400 baud October 90
data modem
NewPort SB 9600 Fax Group 3 October 90
send/recieve Fax modem
Stefan W. Mochnacki INTERNET - stefan at centaur.astro.utoronto.ca
Astronomy, U. of Toronto UUCP - {uunet,pyramid}!utai!helios.physics!stefan
Ph. (416) 884-9562 BITNET - mochnacki at utorphys.bitnet
FAX (416) 978-3921
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