A couple of people replied directly to me rather than to the list. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not but I'm replying to the list because I think this information is valuable to others and I have removed the original posters details just in case they intended to remain anonymous.
Regarding postage machines; first, Pitney Bowes sells the worlds crappiest "high-end" copiers/printers. NEVER EVER buy or lease one. I once accidentally selected the wrong printer driver and sent it a print job. It overwrote the entire printers memory. It had to be factory restored to get it up and running again.... Anyhow, I digress. Pitney Bowes seems to be the standard in Canada for postage machines. The combination of a large <sarcasm>"highly innovative"</sarcasm> company combined with a large <sarcasm>"highly innovative"</sarcasm> crown corporation like Canada Post means we will be using dialup to refill postage machines well into the year 2050. However, if you are an old school dialup modem vet like me, you'll recognize that in the advanced settings of the postage machine you can alter the modem INIT string using the old Hayes AT, command set. With some poking around you can figure out how to set the modem speed and if you manually set it to a maximum speed of 300 baud, it will work over voip quite reliably. There isn't a lot of information that gets transferred back and forth so the speed really isn't a big deal. I really regret not documenting the exact steps required to do this. If anyone else gets it going please let us all know what was done. Regards, - John Lange www.johnlange.ca On Thu, 2008-06-19 at 18:49 -0400, wrote: > Just a quick note on a similar situation I ran into. > > One of my clients that I set an asterisk box up with has their faxes > incoming and outgoing on a VoIP provider that does handle fax transmissions. > (Problem 1 solved). Their POS has the Ethernet port so they could continue > operation without an issue (problem 2 solved) but the BIG headache came when > I found out that they have a postage machine that connects to add funds over > a phone line. Would not work at ALL! The Client and I called the maker > (Pitney Bowes) as well as some competitors and explained the situation to > them. They said that they know their machines don't work in VoIP > connections and there should be a version of their machines in the future > that will work. (apparently there is some stipulation that Canada Post has > to dictate how the funds are transferred and VoIP is not yet approved, or so > I was told) > > The irony is they suggested going back to an analog line just for the > postage machine. (Which is refilled maybe 4 times a year) > > The only work around we came up with was a wireless analog connection to > another business nearby that still had Bell lines and agreed to have the > wireless connection into their place for the postage line. (not an ideal > situation but it worked) > > So just my word of warning, POS, modems and faxes are not the only thing you > should look out for if you choose to suggest having your client go all > digital. > -----Original Message----- > From: John Lange [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: June 19, 2008 5:53 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [on-asterisk] Fax and POS over IP > > If you tweak the ATA for fax settings it will work fine on a LAN > assuming your network is sane. If you have a T38 capable gateway to the > PSTN, (Asterisk NOT a T38 capable gateway), it will work even better. > > The POS will probably never work. Data modems are way more sensitive > than faxes and the TXX (the exact number escapes me at the moment) > standard for modems has never been implemented on an ATA that I'm aware > of. > > However, all newer POS terminals have ethernet and work over the Net. If > the client has an older terminal I suggest they ask their provider for a > newer net-capable model and if they don't have it, switch to someone who > does. > > They work a million times better and faster than the analog dial-up > versions so they are worth it regardless of VOIP or not. > > Regards, --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
