ssmtp for Hylafax? (Was: Re: MTA recomendations?)
On 31 Jan 2002 15:10:52 -0500, Timothy H. Keitt wrote: On Thu, 2002-01-31 at 13:55, Stan Brown wrote: I'm seting up a new woody box for my wife to use. I need a recomendation on an easy to set up, reliable MTA. Also take a look at the ssmtp package. I am interested in this particular package for use with a PC we've got configured as a Hylafax server. I would like a bare bones MTA that would only have to handle outgoing mail to the fax admin at first, mailing received faxes for distribution. It may also have to accept some incoming faxes as email later if I select that option instead of the network print option. As a new Debian user, the simpler the better. Would ssmtp for a good fit for my situation? Are there any other MTAs that would be a good choice? TIA Kevin B.
Re: UPS hardware and software
On Wed, 21 Nov 2001 10:13:11 -0600, Dimitri Maziuk wrote: * Mark A. Bialik ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) spake thusly: Liebert equipment is true line-interactive hardware... you are always running from battery (which is continuously charging). Try running APC's in an environment with a backup power source (Diesel/Natural Gas) and see how they handle the switch-off... maybe you'll get lucky, maybe not. We have APC SmartUPSen on the servers and various small APC UPSen on the workstations (mainly power-board style OfficeUPS). There's a generator on one of the circuits feeding the servers. So far the UPSen handled the switch-over just fine. We're running about 70 APC UPSes. They are a mix: mostly SU-1400RMs, some -1000s, -700s, -600s and even a few BackUP 250s and Pro-280s. The APCs were relatively inexpensive, had good software support (under Windows), did more internal monitoring than most UPSes at the time and could be bought just about anywhere. Tech. support from APC has also been OK. They support PCs running HVAC software in machine rooms. If main power fails, the UPS only has to keep the equipment alive until the BU generator spins up. We haven't had any problems to date with running them from the generator power. When they work, they seem to work well. I'm am reconsidering them for our application though. They are also line-interactive. This means that they are always working the batteries and I think this tends to shorten the lifetime of the pack. The SUs do an internal pack test roughly every two weeks. If they have a shorted cell in a battery when the test runs, they have a tendancy to dump the load, so you _could_ loose your server to a UPS test even with no other trouble condition than a bad pack you haven't gotten around to replacing. The monitoring for the SUs over a serial line is good (apart from the weird cable pinout) but in some cases all I wanted was a contact output. They don't provide one: only an open-collector that you need to cook up a circuit for. This may not be a problem for one or two, but try 70. The 3U rackmounts have user-replaceable packs, but if a cell fails and distorts, try getting it out through the narrow openning without disassembling the entire unit. I'm not sure how the new 2U units are in this regard. So although I don't hate the APCs, I'm starting to lean towards older, standby style units. I suspect that these put fewer failure points in the power path under normal conditions, which I'm considering preferable to having the PC fail because the UPS ran a diagnostic and didn't handle a problem condition correctly. The UPS shouldn't introduce more problems than it solves. My $0.02 (CDN) Kevin B.
Help getting efax to receive?
Hello: I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this type of question. If not, I apologize. I'm just starting with Debian and want to use it to run a fax and print service in our location on a P90 machine with Debian 2.2r3 loaded. I've loaded efax 0.9-4 from the Debian web site (I couldn't find it on the CDs I have) and configured it to run and attach to /dev/ttyS1. I can get efax to send faxes and print TIFF files, but not receive faxes. I've tried two modems (USR Sportster, USR Courier) and have gotten slightly different results. In both cases, efax will answer the incoming call, and will successfully retrieve the originating fax's ID and phone number, but the session fails when it tries to receive the document. Here's a snippet of a session log with the Sportster (Type 1 fax): efax: 23:00 received DCS - session format efax: 23:00 session 98lpi 9600bps 8.5/215mm any 1D- - 0ms efax: 23:00 command +FTS=1 efax: 23:00 waiting 3.0 s efax: 23:00 .798 [CRLFOKCRLF] efax: 23:00 response OK efax: 23:00 command +FRM=96 efax: 23:00 waiting 6.0 s efax: 23:01 .098 [CRLFCONNECTCRLF] efax: 23:01 response CONNECT efax: 23:01 waiting 2.0 s efax: 23:01 .148 [CRLFNO CARRIERCRLF] efax: 23:01 response NO CARRIER efax: 23:01 received TCF - channel check (not OK: run of 0 in 57) And here's a piece of the log using the Courier (Type 2 fax): efax: 11:25 session 98lpi 9600bps 8.5/215mm any 1D- - 0ms efax: 11:25 command +FDR efax: 11:25 waiting 60.0 s efax: 11:27 .858 [CRLF+FCS:0,3,0,2,0,0,0,0CRLF] efax: 11:29 .598 [CRLFCONNECTCRLF] efax: 11:29 response CONNECT efax: 11:29 session 98lpi 9600bps 8.5/215mm any 1D- - 0ms [- snip: long error line -] efax: 12:09 Warning: 113 reception errors efax: 12:09 received 113 lines, 113 errors I've read the man page, checked out the script, visited the web page and sent email to efax's author. The author suggested trying manual receive (same results) and checking to make sure that all programs accessing the serial port use the same files for locking (I'm pretty sure efax is the only one accessing the serial port: mouse is the only other serial peripheral I know of, and its on its own PS/2-style port). At this point I'm fairly certain that efax is set up basically correctly, but I'm not sure about what else may or may not be trying to lock the serial port, or how I can test my modem(s) to make sure they're properly configured. One web page (the Fax-Server mini-HOWTO) mentions a fax test script, but trying the command it suggests isn't recognized on my system. Can anyone suggest a solution, or have any experience with this type of application? TIA Kevin B.
Re: booting is very difficult
On Fri, 16 Nov 2001 02:42:07 -0600, Rory O'Connor wrote: i just re-built my debian system from the disk image, and i'm having the same problem i had before i rebuilt it -- it hangs at LI when trying to boot from the hard disk. I can boot from the emergency floppy just fine though. I just started with Debian this month, and have already seen a similar problem on a machine I got from surplus. It had one internal IDE HD, and one internal SCSI HD plugged into an Adaptec card. I installed Debian on the IDE HD, but the system wouldn't boot. In my case, I found that it appeared that the BIOS was configured to select the SCSI HD as the primary boot device. I assumed that since there were no bootable partitions on that device, LILO was hanging. I also found that the BIOS was password protected, and that I couldn't change this configuration without the password. Removing the motherboard battery for a while solved that. The BIOS defaults were reloaded and the system booted up normally. HTH Kevin B.
