On April 8, 2014, Chris Wood wrote: > Fax can be obnoxious with VOIP. I would recommend getting a copper
> line from the local telco. Maybe someone on the list has the magic > sauce to make fax easy on voip. I hadn't planned on recommending a digital or IP fax setup. In fact, what I did tell him before I asked the questions is that for Fax he'd probably want to get a standard fax machine and hook it into an Analog Telephone Adapter. Then configure the phone switch software (Asterisk was my first thought, but I admit I had forgotten about FreeSwitch) so that the fax's extension is connected to it's own DID #, not the DID for the rest of the office. While I admit the fax-to-email idea is interesting, I don't think there will be enough demand for something like that. Not how it is described to me, anyway. With maybe 15 employees, I'd say the odds are good that the fax machine will remain idle much of the time. Here's how he and I have envisioned the whole setup (phone numbers bogus obviously): * External person sends a fax to 435-555-7002. Asterisk(FreeSwitch) receives the call on that trunk, and forwards to IP 192.168.9.2. Ata at that IP converts signal to POTS style analog phone signal and sends to Fax machine, which receives the fax. * Company employee B sends a fax to 435-555-9751. ATA converts to digital and Switch SFW sends out on 435-555-7002 trunk so that this phone # shows on caller ID. * Company Employee G calls Company X at 801-555-9984 from his desk. Caller ID shows that call coming from 435-555-7001. * Spouse of Employee D calls them at work. They dial 435-555-7001, and get provided PBX/Exchange menu, and dial ext. 104 to get Employee D. * Employee F calls boss to indicate they're sick and won't make it in to work. They dial 435-555-7001, and enter extension 101. Boss isn't at their desk or is on the phone, so they get boss's voice mail and leave message to indicate that they're sick and can't make it in to work. Boss can retrieve this message via his handset later. I've heard of hosted setups, but this guy wants to do it himself. That makes a bit of sense really, because he doesn't know how long it's going to grow his company and he doesn't want to get locked into a contract and then have six months left on the contract when he's ready to hire more employees, but can't add extensions to the PBX for them. I can't really blame him on that. Especially when he might at times hire temp employees. They'd need their own extension when they're there, but those extensions would only be for a few months. The information provided is helpful. Thank you very much. One question though. I'm sure he'll ask it, too. You state that the SIP service can be purchased separate from the actual internet account. Does that mean actually having multiple IP trunks coming into the building (i.e. Telco's T1 containing 16 phone lines hits, and then Internet Provider's fat pipe hits next to it)? Or would he simply get a large inet pipe with dedicated IPs and tell his SIP provider to route all the call information to his particular IP (i.e. 209.66.74.21 for example)? Anyone have any experience with good IP and/or SIP providers in either the St. George area or possibly even in the Provo area? He just barely told me today that he's actually thinking about setting up in Provo vs. St. George, but hasn't decided exactly where yet. Oh well, it's his company. He can set it up where he wants. :) Thanks again all! This helps a LOT! --- Dan On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 4:21 AM, Corey Edwards <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 3:28 PM, Steve Meyers <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On 4/9/14 2:46 PM, Corey Edwards wrote: > > > >> Faxing only works on the legacy PSTN. Full stop. Either outsource to a > fax > >> provider or get a copper line. Save your own sanity. Seriously, I can't > >> overstate this enough. Faxing should die a violent death. > >> > > > > I completely agree, having spent far too much time trying to get it to > > work. And our SIP provider swore that they supported T.38! > > > > They all will, but I have yet to find 2 T.38 implementations that work > together reliably. Nice in theory, not so much in practice. > > Corey > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
